Chapter 462 Decision
As Daneel saw the mystery of the origins of this crazy man be revealed in front of him, he couldn't help but shake his head with pity.
He had heard the way the man had spoken when he had been lucid, and it had been very reminiscent of a king.
Watching the fate of this person who had definitely once ruled over millions of people, Daneel shuddered with fear, wondering if something similar might have happened to him to if he hadn't found out about the dangers of the Empire Spirit.
Thankfully, with all the means available to him, he had.
Coming back to this matter, the most worrying thing was that the Empire Spirit had managed to kill multiple Hero level entities in its heyday.
Right now, it was a very reasonable guess that it would definitely not even flinch at killing him, who was just a Warrior.
Besides, that last proclamation about him not being able to save his best friend had sounded ominous, and because he knew for sure that the one in front of him was telling the truth due to the Mind Control spell, Daneel felt worry clouding his mind.
The only good news was that the Empire Spirit was still currently weakened, and he still had one month of time.
Of course, in one day, he would have to return to the Sect of Hedon, but Daneel would try to figure out how to escape from that later on, as first, he needed to decide what he was going to do with this abject man.
"Why do you think I cannot save him?"
As Daneel asked the obvious question, he almost felt as if the crazy king in front of him had just scoffed.
"Even though you are in possession of a Hero level Mind Control spell, you cannot cancel out another, especially when it is in full effect. Whatever you do, you cannot break your friend out of that spell, and the Empire Spirit would just drive him crazy if you tried anything else. You can't hope to trick it either: it is something that has existed for thousands of years, and its intelligence surpasses almost everyone alive. I suggest that you forget your friend, or if you have the guts, kill him to save him from that plight."
As the chilling words entered Daneel's ears, an intense frown came on his face, but he decided to move on for now.
"Why are you so afraid of that bird?"
"This is not the first time that I managed to escape. Sometimes it even lets me escape so that I don't devolve completely into madness. The second side in me get satisfied when it drinks someone's blood, so it engages in that activity while the first has no option but to watch on with horror. That is why it has been imploring you to kill it. After a little period of time, which typically ends 10 minutes from now, the Empire Spirit reactivates the Mind Control spell on this body, making it return to where its corporeal body is."
The crazy man was in a state where his inner consciousness seemed to be talking, so he occasionally referred to himself in the third person.
At the mention of the corporeal body, Daneel recalled what he said about the Empire spirit - that it was bound to the stone podium.
"Will destroying the stone podium kill the spirit?"
"Yes. But it cannot be destroyed using any means that are available right now. The only other way is to absorb all of the Energy inside the stone podium, which is the source of the Spirit's continued existence in this world. This option is only possible for Spirits which have been ripped from their original place, which, in itself, takes a massive effort, and is only possible during an attempt of possession. When the stone podium was being carried away on the orders of the Empire Spirit for safety, I noticed that there were misshapen branches of red material inside which constituted it."
As Daneel heard this, his eyes widened with surprise.
Could it be…?
After hearing about the Ker Root, Daneel had asked the system to show him what it looked like, just in case he came upon one by chance.
Quickly, using his Paragon powers, he made an image of the Ker Root that he had seen in the book appear in front of the crazy king.
It was almost exactly like the root of a plant, except if the root were made up of the shiny material that glowed a dark red.
Daneel was just about to rejoice, but the answer from the crazy king made a crestfallen expression appear on his face.
"No. It was much thicker, and it was a much darker color. It was almost black."
At this moment, the system spoke in his mind, making him smile.
[The person in front of host is referring to the ancient form of the Ker Root, when the Energy level of the continent was much higher. Descriptions of the material were found in one of the journals of a scholar who extensively studied the age of the Empire of Angaria.]
Yes! That meant that the crazy plan that had appeared in his head might work!
However, now was not the time to think about it. First, he had to decide whether he was going to kill this King.
If he did, then he would be granting the wish of someone who might have only wanted to grow stronger in order to help his people.
Yet, he would be taking a very big risk, as the Empire Spirit might be able to detect that something was wrong.
However, if he didn't, he would be left with the guilt of ignoring a helpless man's plea just to keep themselves safe.
Also, killing someone in cold blood just because they asked for it and needed it was still not something the Daneel was sure that he could do.
Sure, he had gotten a lot more bloodthirsty than before due to everything he had been through, which had especially been on display when he had slaughtered those scum in the Sect of Hedon without flinching.
Only, then, he had been imagining what they had done to those poor women in the Black Raven Kingdom, and he had let the anger take control.
Now, with this man pleading in front of him, Daneel was hesitant.
Did everything always have to be so black and white? Couldn't there be better, easier ways to do things?
Before, in the fight, Daneel had at some point decided, without even knowing why, that he would defeat his opponent directly, matching fist with fist and blood with blood.
Thankfully, he had snapped out of that after realizing that that would only end in his room.
After that, he had managed to find a solution through his wit.
Could he do that now?
Asking himself that, Daneel sank into deep thought, and a few minutes later, he realized that there really was a way.
To confirm, he asked the crazy king, "Can the Empire Spirit detect that you were under the effect of a Hero level Mind Control spell?"
"No, because it is at the same level. Spells at the same level cannot detect things about each other. They can only do so with those of lower level. Right now, its Mind Control spell is still on me, but it is in a dormant stage. You were not able to detect it."
That was right. Daneel had guessed as much, and had also been hoping that this would be the case, even though this wasn't always how spells worked.
"Good. First, tell me the location of the Empire Spirit, and answer a few more questions of mine. Then, listen. This is what happened…"
…
A few minutes later.
At the waterfall where Faxul had interacted with the Empire Spirit, the crazy man had just returned and was blabbering to himself while he walked inside the cave.
The stone podium was unmoving, but if one closed their eyes, they would be able to feel that there was something inside that podium that was keeping an eye on the blabbering man.
Inside the crazy king's mind, the Empire Spirit rummaged around, as since the man had come back, it had only heard from the crazy side of him, with the lucid side nowhere to be seen.
A few seconds later, it understood what had happened.
This old friend of its had gone and slaughtered a few people from his own Kingdom, and after so many years, it had finally been the last straw. The lucid side had completely snapped and lost itself to the crazy one, resulting in the man now truly deserving the moniker "crazy"
Well, this didn't change or modify its plans in any way.
Changing back its focus to the Black Raven throne room, it observed as the body that it was going to inhabit and rule the world with went about its daily routine, sitting in on a boring court session while wondering when it could get back to testing out that incredible inheritance that it had received from the mysterious stone podium inside the waterfall.
The doubt regarding whether it should contact its best friend still remained, but the Mind Control spell was more than enough to stop the body from doing so, all while fattening itself up to be ripe enough to be plucked by the Empire Spirit when it was done recovering.
That was why the Empire Spirit did not even consider the person who was inside the body presently: it only referred to the body as "it", as it saw itself inside the body soon, at which point the original owner would be irrelevant.
Waiting for that day when it could finally free itself from this damn podium, the Empire Spirit chuckled to itself sinisterly.
…
Meanwhile, Daneel had reached the Kingdom of Lanthanor and was standing in the library, where the red light was still shining from under the door.
For the life of him, he couldn't decide whether he had to go in, or whether he should just ignore it completely, just to be safe.