Unaware of the ally he had just gained, Daneel directly walked to the medical bay of the Fortress where Elanev had been taken to after the Battle.
On the way, he couldn't help but notice that the overall attitude of those in the Fortress had changed.
True, there were still the typical Fighters with fragile egos who sneered at him and comforted themselves by saying in their mind that he could never become a Hero, so they would never have to kneel to him.
Daneel ignored them, as he knew that they would be his primary source of entertainment when the time came to take over the sect.
It was the few who made way for him, and even looked at him with respect in their eyes that surprised Daneel and made him once again feel that a public spectacle was always the best method to change one's perspective.
After reaching the medical bay, Daneel wasn't surprised to see that it was almost filled to the brim.
As a sect that focused on the Fighter Path, it was normal for its inhabitants to sustain injuries regularly which made it so that it made sense that the medical bay was a large room that had over 200 beds.
It occupied an entire building that was built into one corner tower of the 4 towers of the fortress, and walking through it, Daneel felt that this was one of the most unique sights he would ever see.
That was because most of these beds…were filled because of him.
As the Battle had just concluded, all the Fighters who had been injured during it were currently being healed here. Among them, many had been eliminated by Daneel's machinations.
If they hadn't seen that final fight where the dominating sight of those monstrosities being handled as if they were children wasn't present in their minds, they might have gone ahead and swarmed the King in order to get their revenge.
At the moment, though, all they could do was glare at him, and as Daneel walked through the multiple rows of beds, his back prickled as many, many sets of eyes were eyeing it with murderous anger.
Of course, these were all insignificant individuals he didn't care about, and although he was tempted to take on his 'cocky' avatar and say something to make them cough out blood, he resisted the impulse as he knew that there was no need to further hurt all these Fighters who had already been put in their place by everything they had witnessed.
Soon, he reached the bed where Elanev's name tag was there, and to his surprise, he saw that it was empty.
Huh? Shouldn't his condition be pretty critical as he had expended all of his energy in the battle before? Where could he have gone?
Was he being targeted by some disgruntled Fighters in his weakened state?
That didn't seem very possible, as the Fortress was still under the surveillance of the Chief, who wouldn't let something like that happen.
Puzzled, Daneel wondered who he should ask, which was when he saw someone familiar in the corner of his eye.
Tall.
He hadn't used much force to make the guy teleport out so that he could take his place, but the wound from the hammer on his head looked like it still needed some treatment.
When Daneel had been looking in a different direction, he had spotted that Tall had been eyeing him with an expression that he couldn't decipher as he hadn't been able to see it clearly.
Now, when he turned in that direction and walked to him, he saw the man trying very hard to act as if he was asleep.
"Stop acting if you don't want another hammer to your head."
This statement caused Tall to suffer flashbacks which made him instantly sit up and look above his head in panic, as he was afraid that there was already a hammer there, which was the last sight he had seen on the battlefield.
Seeing that that was thankfully not the case, Tall first let out a sigh of relief before putting on an expression of deep discontent.
"I agreed to help you, but you eliminated me in such a rude manner. Couldn't you have just activated the teleportation trinket?"
"What can I do? You insisted on getting greedy when I told you that you should leave. So…I simply had no choice!"
If anyone who knew the truth behind what had happened in the battlefield heard this exchange, they would definitely be puzzled as to what the heck these two were talking about.
Hadn't Daneel used a part of his own consciousness to control Tall before switching with him? What was all this about 'agreeing' to help, now?
This…was the last part of Daneel's plan, which was to make sure that no clues would be left that he had used means that were not supposed to be available to him.
Each and every Fighter who had been controlled by either his, Kellor's or Faxul's consciousnesses would think that they had done everything of their own volition, and that they had not been under someone else's control in any way.
After all, their consciousnesses had full control of that person, so it was a piece of cake to create a fake memory that would seem real after they left those bodies.
Hence…according to Tall, everything had happened just like how it had looked to those in the Pavilions. He had agreed to help Daneel so that he could help himself, and he had been switched out later.
At that time, he had resisted, and he had been knocked out by a hammer.
"I don't even know why I made those decisions, but I was just trying to win. Anyway, what do you want? If it's about the guy who came to the sect with you, he limped out of here while saying something strange that sounded like 'thirsty'. Water was beside his bed, so no one understood, and no one stopped him either as they didn't want to take a punch similar to the one they had seen during the battle."
For a second, Daneel felt even more puzzled as he heard this, but he then understood where his elder brother might have gone.
He was just about to head off, but that was when he saw the deep sadness in the eyes of the man in front of him whose identity he had used.
To everyone else, Tall would be the one who had resulted in them being eliminated, so Daneel could tell that he would be targeted for a long while even after Daneel left the sect.
True, he had tried to scheme to make Daneel fight for him.
But did he deserve this?
That sadness made it clear that he had a tale that belonged to him, and although Daneel wasn't too interested in finding out all the details, one thing was clear: his motivation to become stronger and lose his status was something to be commended, and it was something that would keep him going for a long, long time, no matter what came in his way.
Getting an idea, Daneel said, "If you value your life, don't tell anyone where you got this," before directly walking toward the door.
Tall was puzzled as he heard these words which were spoken in such a low tone that they were only audible to him.
Shaking his head, he lied back down on his bed but felt something sharp poke his back which made him yelp with pain.
These sounds were common around the room due to all those suffering from having various bones broken, so no one really noticed it. As for those who had their eyes set on him to take revenge later, they were too busy getting treatment and they weren't paying attention to him right now as they knew that he couldn't go anywhere.
So, unnoticed by anyone, Tall searched the bed and found a shining data trinket which made his jaw drop as soon as he touched it.
"Greater High-Tier Fighter Path: 'Elasticity' modified for this age. Allows one to stretch any body part…"
…
Meanwhile, with a smile on his face, Daneel headed to the place where he knew his elder brother would be.
He hadn't been told by the Chief not to give the techniques he had created to others, so Daneel had taken the liberty of awarding Tall with that technique after checking whether it was suitable for him.
Putting that matter out of his mind as his fate was in his hands now, Daneel once again got lost in his thoughts as he began to recall the cases where the previous sect leaders had been able to obtain the Ultimate Path. Could there be anything he had missed?
Soon, though, he found himself at a door which he knocked.
There was no response.
As he knocked again, he asked the system to break through the anti-eavesdropping formation that was active around this house.
As soon as the system did so, he heard a voice from inside say, "-must be him! One of you go open the door! He's shy around women, so he'll definitely leave!"
Giggling and laughing sounds followed after this statement, and as Daneel felt his face burn, he heard the footsteps which indicated that someone was coming to the door.
Bracing himself, he counted the number of distinct sounds he had heard.
1,2,3…13.
13 women were in there.
So…it seemed that his elder brother's 'thirst' was pretty damn serious, and that his status seemed to have changed in the village after his amazing performance in the battle.
Deciding that they would definitely be having another fight as soon as he got back to Lanthanor, Daneel left the sect after placing a note in front of the door.
…
Leaving the sect was simple- the Chief had already given him the authority to bypass the sect's formations, which Daneel used to get to Lanthanor quickly.
As soon as he got back, he checked on Cassandra, who was apparently in the Black Raven Kingdom right now as part of her search.
She sent him a message saying that she felt that she was getting closer, but that it would take time.
Hoping that she would succeed soon, Daneel immediately called for a Royal Court so that he could get an update regarding anything he might have missed in this past month.
He had completely been cut off from all sorts of communication, and after the battle, he had seen that there were a lot of messages waiting for him.
However, he had decided to directly come to Lanthanor in order to see what was up instead of seeing the messages and then responding to them.
After doing so, he sat alone in the Throne Room, and Eloise was the first to show up.
Daneel smiled brightly at her, and she smiled back.
He had already told all of the sovereigns what he was up to, so she asked, "How was it?"
"Extremely fruitful. After the meeting, stay back. I have to talk to you about something."
Although she got a puzzled expression on her face, Eloise nodded, while the rest of the ministers started filing in one by one.
Soon, news spread that the King was already waiting, so everyone sped up, and the Royal Court began.
And the first item on the agenda…made Daneel take a double take.
A map of Angaria that had been conjured by Eloise, herself, was floating in front of him in the middle of the court, and it was divided into three sections: one was golden, to represent the Alliance, another was red, which was the newly established Republic of Axelor, and the third was blue, which represented Arafell.
Only…this blue seemed to dominate a LOT of the map.
Eloise spoke up to explain the situation.
"Until now, in the history of Angaria, the various Kingdoms and Forces were always cautious of others attacking them if they expanded their territories. However, right now, the Kingdom of Arafell is acting as if it is sure that others will not attack it, no matter what it does. It has begun aggressively expanding to take in all the independent towns and villages, thereby expanding its population significantly. Usually, these people are left alone as any Kingdom trying to take them over would be beaten back into their walls by other forces. We estimate that if Arafell's progress is not stopped, it will control almost the same amount of land as the four Kingdoms of the Alliance, combined."
A single thought instantly appeared in Daneel's mind as soon as he heard this.
That b*tch!
She knew that 3 forces had to exist as per the rules enforced by the Big 4, so she was taking advantage of it to get control of more troops so that she could break the third seal, too!
Besides, it was almost like she knew that Daneel would be gone for a month, as it looked like she had begun this whole thing right after the Legacy Battle had started.
So, she had had the perfect window to just go ahead without any hindrance.
Getting a sudden doubt, Daneel checked whether there were any messages from Arafell.
Indeed, there was one, and as he heard it, he had no option but to grit his teeth and realize that he had been outplayed.
"Remember me?"