5 kilometers away, under an unassuming rock, a figure coated with earth was lying prone, unmoving.
A small scorpion slowly climbed onto this figures legs, then made its way to her back, as it had smelled something strange from this spot. Yet, no matter how much it searched, it couldn't find anything amiss.
From the figure's back, it traveled to its head, before finally admitting defeat and leaving the scene.
All through this, the figure hadn't moved even an inch, which showed just how adept it was in hiding.
Of course, this was Joselyn.
As she heard the King say that statement with so much confidence, doubt appeared inside her, as she wondered whether this man, who was the cause of miracle after miracle on Angaria, was capable of even this feat.
Yet, that thought was interrupted by the flashes of images which haunted her day and night.
Sacks oozing with blood. One had only hands. Another, only legs. And the last…contained the heads, all of which were contorted into expressions of extreme pain.
In all of the sacks, it was the smallest items which hurt the most when she saw them. She had clutched them in her hands and cried out, yet there had been no one to help her. No one to tell her that it would be all right.
Since that day, she hadn't slept even a single night completely. Nightmares plagued her, and it was a miracle that she was even alive after surviving on just 2-3 hours of disturbed sleep per day.
She…had lost the ability to trust anyone ages ago. Hell, she didn't even trust herself, completely. Maybe that was why she would sometimes tie up her hands before sleeping. Because she was afraid that she might kill herself, before she obtained revenge on all those elves who were still continuing to commit acts like those and destroying human families, one by one.
Only, right now…when she had heard the King say it, she had imagined for a moment.
It…was truly a sight to behold.
But was it possible?
Should she give him a chance?
Should she trust him and promise to stand down?
No way. How could she trust someone who had saved all those elves, too?
"No. I'm sorry, but I cannot take the luxury of trusting you. I guess that you want me to announce to the Gathering that we will stand down or something. After that, I can guess that your plan must be to root all these bandits out and kill them, all at once. If you do that, I will have no more instrument to take my revenge."
Hearing this, Daneel sighed.
It had been a long shot. After all, he couldn't expect everyone to just follow him willy-nilly just because he said a few words.
Besides, this was also someone highly intelligent and driven, and such people were rare and hard to come by. Only, they were also harder to convince.
Once again, Daneel felt that same feeling that had washed over him when he had repeatedly failed to find clues regarding who was behind all this.
Failure.
After a long time, he had once again…failed.
Yet, Daneel had learned from that moment. Instead of getting anger and frustration, he felt determined to give his best.
He could tell that Joselyn was going to cut the call, probably because she was still afraid that he would somehow track her down.
So, he quickly said, "Wait! I have one last thing to say."
Not hearing the 'click' which would mean that she had severed the connection, Daneel felt relieved and continued.
"I understand that you can't trust me. After all, I've done nothing to earn your trust. But I wanted to tell you this. I will go ahead and do what I just said, anyway. I do not want such scum to live any more than you do, and I'm also interested to see how the other elves will react when they see those confessions. Give me the list of those elves. It will save me a lot of time. I assume that this was what you were doing in the years between you leaving Eldinor and becoming the bandit leader?"
The answer came after a moment.
"Yes."
"Good. Give me the list. You lose nothing by doing so. If, and I'm saying if, I make it happen, I really hope that you reconsider your decision. Of course, for now, you don't need to join me, and you don't need to promise anything either. All right?"
The only answer Daneel got was that 'click', which meant that she had gone ahead and severed the connection.
Yet, he smiled, as he knew that she had heard what he said.
But…what about the list?
As soon as he got this question, data from a data trinket started to be transferred, line by line, to the communication trinket in his hands.
"System, record all these names!", he said, as even though he could remember all of them clearly if he wanted to because of the increased complexity of his mind after breaking through to become a Peak Warrior, he didn't want to run the risk of missing a name.
[Affirmative.]
The transmission ended after a few more minutes, after which Daneel smiled again, placed the trinket in his pocket and teleported back to his bandit group.
Once he reached there, the others had to take a moment to recognize him, as blood had spilled onto his face when he had wrenched Riordan's limbs out.
First, there was fear, mainly because of the horrifying look in Daneel's eyes, which was the result of him contemplating what kind of tortures those rotten elves should be subjected to.
"Leader Vincent is victorious! Yes!"
After that, cheering finally began, which was cut off by Daneel with a wave of his hand when he walked forward to the Bandit Gathering trinket again.
The others had already heard the cheers, so, when he spoke, it was the confirmation.
"Guess Mr. Riche Rich wasn't as skilled as he thought, after all. Oh, if anyone wants confirmation: we were fighting 56 kilometers north-east from the Border gate of Lanthanor. Just look for the craters, and you can find his sorry ass body there, too. Now then, I wish to address all the bandit groups. My predecessor, Skylar, called this meeting because he wasn't confident in J's plan. I echo those sentiments. Hell, I miss the man. We had such a nice understanding."
As chuckles sounded through the trinket, Daneel continued.
"If we go through with what J has suggested, mark my words, there will be another bandit hunt just like 400 years ago, when he had to hide like dogs and rats for years, living on raw meat and grass, while the Kingdoms of the Central Continent scoured the land for us. We may have survived then, but I am not willing for us to do that again. One statistic says that 40% of us died from starvation. That means 4 out of every 10 of you will die from clutching your stomachs in vain because you will have no food to eat! There isn't a more disgraceful death for a bandit. We are men of might! If we die, then it should be on the battlefield, after we've put forward our whole effort to live and spit on death's face! I propose a different plan. Let us move to the other major bandit areas, where we can covertly attack and kill many bandit groups and take over their place. I've already shown you my worth in might. Follow me, and you will see the same in all other matters, too. Follow me, to march forth into a new age of banditry, where we can pillage and kill to our heart's content!"
"YES!"
"LEADER VINCENT! LEADER VINCENT!"
"Pillage, kill, and drink! And make sure that the beer isn't always gone!"
As Daneel spoke out with burning passion, many, many shouts of approval could be heard until it resulted in a cacophony of voices which couldn't be made sense of.
Only, they all ceased when that garbled voice spoke up.
"A noble cause, Leader Vincent. But a statistic also says that 6 out of 10 of an invading force, especially when they are outnumbered and in a new place, will die. I still see better odds with my plan, even if this statistic doesn't really apply to us. Yes, we will have to hide. But we can make preparations beforehand to avoid deaths by starvation. To all those who follow me, I tell you this. Yes, we will have to hide for years. But when we emerge, we will be the ones in command, instead of having to struggle to go to a new place which we know nothing about. Follow me, if you want to be Kings instead of fleeing rats."
J's speech was given in a neutral tone, but it was enough to incite the other bandits who had been on the fence.
Once again, Daneel had to admit that she was very, very capable, to say the least.
He had expected something like this to happen, but he was powerless to stop it. So, all he could do was say his piece and see what happens.
Asher spoke up after this.
"Bandit leaders, please stop forward and make your decisions known regarding which leader you wish to follow. I guess it's obvious that those who follow Vincent will be following his plan, while those who stand behind J will go ahead with the plan we already have - to mix into villages and towns and kill elves to break the alliance. I shall be counting."
With a pondering expression on his face, Daneel waited for the voting to be done.
He was thinking about the list of vile elves he had. True, making them confess was a bright idea, but how could it be explained if the Big 4 decided to intervene on seeing that it was very strange? There had to be some or the other reason.
When he was thinking about this, Daneel found himself remembering Earth. There, what would explain something miraculous like this?
A single answer came to his mind.
Religion!
There were many instances in history where people had gotten up to strange activities in the name of their 'God'.
Some said it was mass hysteria, but others said that there really was something to it.
Regardless, the result was what Daneel wanted.
As he thought about this, Daneel noticed a glaring 'hole' on this continent that, made him pause and drop his jaw, wondering how he hadn't noticed it before.
There was no religion, at all!
On Angaria, there was no concept of prayer or believing in something people couldn't see, but was much greater than them. Yes, people referred to the 'heavens' and 'hell', but it was all vague.
There were a few exceptions, but even there, religion wasn't a thing. For example, in the Black Raven Kingdom, people worshipped the ancestor Black Raven, which had turned out to be a crazy, raving lunatic who was now subdued by Faxul.
As for the giants, they worshipped Arafell.
Still, this really was a huge, gaping 'hole'.
Should he fill it?
Daneel knew that there were many positives and negatives with religion, so he was indecisive.
That was when the final result was announced: surprisingly, the bandit groups which had been in 3 parts had now split into two, with half vowing to follow Daneel while the other half would go along with J.
Yes, it was definitely a failure, at least, for now.
As Daneel stood up, he made a decision.
This was a major matter, so he would first have to carry out a test. With this thought, Daneel recalled the origins of some of the major religions on Earth.
While he decided that he wouldn't be copying anything directly from there, he did take some tips, while forming a plan in his own style.
As a smile formed on the corner of his lips, the members of his bandit group started to wonder just what kind of plan their powerful leader was cooking up now.
…
Night time, in the Kingdom of Eldinor.
After using burning tongs to happily torture 5 of the many humans whom he kept in his basement, Gerhart the elf had just climbed into his soft bed with the company of another human who was tied to his bed.
Closing his eyes, he fell asleep.
Only, a few minutes later, he opened his eyes and squinted to find a round globe of light that was as bright as the sun shining in all its glory in the room, right in front of him.
Looking to the side, he saw that the tied up human woman was still asleep, which meant that….
"You're dreaming, Gerhart. You have sinned. I have come to offer you salvation, and an escape from the eternity of pain that awaits you in hell. I am the Light, and if you truly wish to find an escape, then you must Praise me and follow my instructions. What kind of pain, you ask? Let me show you…"