Daneel"s voice echoed again and again in the large Hall, and as he saw all the expressions of the hundreds of Heroes in front of him, he did not know what to think.
He had not expected that he would be at this stage so soon. His initial plan regarding this whole thing had been completely different - he had always thought, or at least hoped that the timeline given by his master would be adhered to, which would mean that he would still have a couple of years to calmly breakthrough to the Hero realm while continuing to unite the continent under him.
After all, he had always known that the endgame would be related to the Grand Inheritance, and the Emperor"s idea had always been that someday, one individual would come forth who would be capable of bringing all of Angaria under him.
Hence, the plan that Daneel had kept in the deepest recesses of his heart without telling anyone but his sovereigns as it might sound too absurd was that he would build an Empire, too, secretly, under the noses of the Big Four and the Order, while also covertly infiltrating and influencing these two forces until he had the majority of the power of Angaria at his beck and call.
Of course, even when he looked back at it now, it seemed too idealistic. Although it was true that most of his plans until now had been graced by success due to his relentless pursuit of perfection in regards to each and every aspect that he always ensured were as flawless as they could be, he had always known that there would be some moment where something that he could never have antic.i.p.ated would come forth and throw all of his careful planning into chaos.
That was exactly what had happened here - no one had known that the Church was on its way, and that it had been plotting for all these years, completely in secret, with the help of Arnold to arrive in Angaria when it was at its weakest to sweep over it to achieve the victory that they had sought after for so long.
True, Daneel"s actions were vital to this result of them successfully throwing back the Church, but more than that, a lot of credit had to be given to their home, which had defended itself instinctually by preventing the forces of the Church from coming into their full power right away.
In this past week, Daneel had done a lot of thinking on the issue, until he had started to become fed up with it. Of course, the faces of all those Axelorians still haunted him, and even though he had not faced them yet and had stowed them away to be dealt with and thought of at a later date, regarding the rest, he had come to a conclusion.
All of the plans he had made were no longer valid - he had to come up with new ones, taking the best aspects of those that he would now be discarding, before finally deciding on something that would give them the best chance of survival, even though they were one kingdom short.
The other thing that he was most interested in finding out was also how this thing had been carried out beneath his nose, but he knew that he had to wait until his body recovered. Indeed, he was still mostly in that mangled form where his brain and nervous system were the only things that had survived in one piece, and although the flesh was regenerating at quite a fast pace, he would not be running any marathons for the coming months.
However, the Mageroot was a wonderful thing. As it was present within the brain, it had been retained to a maximum degree due to the efforts of the system to save his vital parts. It had been thoroughly damaged, though, and normally, it would have taken at least a month for it to be able to be used even rudimentary.
However, that woman had truly worked magic - she had pulled out expertise and medical spells that Daneel had not even imagined could exist on this continent, and the result was that in barely a week, he could output power at the level of an Amateur Warrior.
With the help of his sovereigns, he could easily use this to appear in this hall in the form of an apparition, and as he saw all of the Heroes finally "rise", as he had implored them to, he wondered, once again, whether he had made the right decision to talk in this way.
Ever since he had known that he would be attending this meeting, he had evaluated his options, and there were many of them.
He could be c.o.c.ky, a.s.serting his dominance over them all and saying that they now had a debt to him that they had better repay, but anyone with a brain would be able to figure out that this was the most disastrous method.
He could be humble, saying that he had only done his duty, and that they owed him nothing. Again, this would also be quite bad, as what he had done was definitely not nothing, and he did want to obtain something from this group that he was going to address at this juncture by using whatever they felt for him.
Finally, Daneel had decided on the middle ground. He would not belittle them further than they had already experienced by coming so close to being bound to the Church forever, but he would also not let them forget that he had done so much for the continent.
More than anything, his objective was to make them know that there was still a lot to be done, and hence, Daneel had decided on this simple speech.
h.e.l.l, it couldn"t even be called a speech, when compared to all of those that he had given in similar situations so far.
However, with his objective being that they should all be able to move forward and keep the coming battle in mind, he felt like this would be for the best, and it wasn"t like there wouldn"t be opportunities later if he did not achieve the desired effect with these words.
By saying that he would see the war won, he had made it clear that he would be leading them.
By saying that he was giving his word, his intention was to communicate that just like he had already done, he was ready to give it his all.
And in the end, of course, his order to rise was not just to make them rise to their feet, but rise to the occasion.
On the faces and eyes of those who were now standing, Daneel could see that he had not failed.
The mention of the war was enough to make them relive the nightmare, and in fact, for many of them, it had only ended three days ago.
After the part of Angaria that no longer had the protection of the Will had floated away, all of the Heroes and Champions who had been made to fall unconscious by the ent.i.ty had remained in that state. Thankfully, Daneel"s final order that had allowed the 300 Heroes to turn back into normal had resulted in there at least being this force to maintain order, and because they were also filled with grat.i.tude, they had acted with his sacrifice in mind.
The Head had also been essential in this - he had never let them forget, and in fact, he had also found the best healer for him. Only the other day, the Head had told him about how the woman that had come to him had sworn over 500 years ago that she would never, ever heal anyone due to an incident that happened in her life. She had stuck to this even when her own son might have been saved if she had raised her hand, but for him, he had managed to convince her that she should set her vow aside.
That was the reason why he could be here now, and Daneel really appreciated it. He could see her standing in the crowd, looking at him with a twinkle in her eyes and a hint of pride in the set of her shoulders, and in the silence that followed his declaration during which all of the Heroes were coming to terms with reality, he nodded at her, and she nodded back with respect.
During those three days after the departure of the Church, the Heroes had done everything they could to wake up all of those who had fallen unconscious again after turning back to normal. Some of the copies of the armor and weapon trinkets that hadn"t been distributed were also found and studied, but the result was quite astonis.h.i.+ng- no one could figure out how the ent.i.ty had managed to do it, and how to reverse it, and even though those who were known for their research abilities stated that they might be able to accomplish something if they had time, it became clear that even this was uncertain.
Thankfully, the team of researchers finally had a breakthrough after a day, if it could be called that - after deep a.n.a.lysis, they had found out that because the trinket was the one actively keeping its owner in this state, then it was doing so using the Energy that had been stored inside it. It couldn"t be exposed without harming the owner as it was hiding inside, but the truth was that it was continuously expending Energy over time. When it ran out, it would stop, and all of the owners would wake up.
Typically, the Energy stored inside such high-level trinkets would be quite high, intending to save the owners from all kinds of attacks. Thankfully, Daneel"s action of turning them all into monsters had actually depleted these trinkets, as they had all helped in the fight against the Church by protecting the monsters that their owners had turned into from the attacks of the Church.
Hearing this, Daneel had been quite amused, as if the ent.i.ty found out that the trinkets it had made had been used to save Angaria, then it would definitely roll in its grave.
Hence, finally, after two more days, one by one, the Champions and Heroes had started to wake up, and the first thing that many had done was cry, as they had been uncertain for so long whether they would ever see the world again.
The Head took it upon himself to explain to them what had happened, and according to him, all of them had been quite shocked.
A King from the Central Continent who they had all thought was merely talented as a Fighter(due to his fight in the Fortress) had saved the continent single-handedly?
Apparently, many had even not believed him, until they were shown a recording of what had happened, and heard even the Heroes who were awake corroborating the story.
Finally, disbelief had turned into acceptance, and that was how they were here, at this moment.
Have dwelled in the past enough(and maybe a bit too much), Daneel cleared his throat.
It was time to look to the future, now, so he was about to speak, but suddenly, the Head sent him a message.
Frowning, Daneel changed what he had been about to say.
To buy time, he said, "First, take a few moments to go through the past one last time. Every time you feel doubt, or feel that it might be better to just give up, relive what has happened, and remember the fate that would have befallen you. After that…I want you all to think of what must be done first at this moment. The Church will return soon, and you Heroes are the ones with the best minds on the continent. Go on."
After this, he let the apparition be and appeared in another spot, where a clone of the Head was also standing.
They were in a small room, and there was one other object present with them: it was a display trinket, and after a few moments during which Daneel and the Head waited with grim expressions on their faces, an image flickered to life.
It was of a man who looked as if he hadn"t slept in weeks, and after he confirmed that he could be heard, he spoke in an urgent tone.
"Daneel! The Head told me everything- great job killing that Overseer! This operation was so top-secret that I only found out after it was carried out…I simply don"t know how that Bishop was able to do so. Anyway, I have news- the full attack is coming. What you saw was just one squadron of the Church- a thousand Peak Heroes, all extremely experienced in battle. The force that has been earmarked for the invasion…is three squadrons, and the Bishop actually got permission for using so many by showing…you. According to her, you are an anomaly who will thwart the Church"s plans if you are not overwhelmed, and that is exactly what they are going to do. Oh…you really managed to p.i.s.s her off. But we"re practically screwed- how the h.e.l.l are we supposed to defend against 3000 Peak Heroes when all we have are a paltry 500? I can"t figure that out, for the life of me, so it"s all up to you…"