Chapter 501 The Plan, Revealed
The first thing that Daneel did after leaving the Energy Generator was that he chose a spot in the sky before casting a Hero-level anti-eavesdropping formation and fashioning a wooden chair out of thin air.
Dumping the Queen of Eldinor in that chair, Daneel folded his hands and cast a spell to awaken her.
He had knocked her out using a pretty strong and sudden blow to her head as he hadn't wanted to take any chances, so he had to wait for a few seconds while she woke up and looked around groggily, trying to understand who and where she was.
Before he proceeded to do anything, he first had to get the answer from her regarding what her choice would be.
So, he had no option but to wait while she gathered her bearings.
While waiting, he couldn't help but think back to the plan, and the amount of work he had to do.
Since the start, the goal had been simple: simulate a fake threat which will bring the elves together in idolizing Lanthanor, and him as their selfless saviors to whom they owed an inestimable debt to.
Initially, he had considered using the original blood-purifying formation given by Dinora to Eldra, but he had instantly discarded that after finding out that its true potency would result in all the bodies that were affected by the veil bursting into showers of blood instantly.
He needed something…less grisly. And he also needed something whose effects wouldn't be so…permanent.
After all, he wasn't a madman who would consider just letting countless people die just to further his plans and power.
There had been many in history, both on Earth and Angaria who had tried to use devilish plans which sacrificed many, many lives in order to set up a scenario where they could swoop in and save the day in order to reap the support or rewards from many, many more.
Yet, very few of those actually had good endings. At least, even if there were those who got away with it, it was most possible that they were few and far in between.
Daneel's plan revolved around creating an authentic scenario which was reversible, but also real.
And as such, there had to be at least a modicum of real consequences, which was integral if he wanted to lend authenticity to the whole thing.
He had already known that there would be naysayers who would definitely accuse Lanthanor of setting it all up, so his job was just to make sure that those people wouldn't have any believable facts to back their story up.
Whether he liked it or not, naysayers like these were integral to society, and he just had to deal with them.
Besides, Daneel had had no intention of doing a half-assed job anyway. This was going to be in an integral turning point in the history of this continent, and if there was even a hint of a chance through which the truth could be exposed, then everything would be for naught.
His grand plans would all go up in flames, and it was very possible that there might even be an all-out war.
So, Daneel had been determined to be very, very careful.
In essence, his plan was a double-layered deception.
The first layer of deception involved deceiving the elves and humans who were attending the festival that there was a very real threat to their lives, while the second involved making Eldra, and in turn, Dinora think that they were seeing the real effects of the blood-purifying formation.
The latter part had actually been the most simple. He had simply intercepted Eldra on her way when she had set off to bury the formation trinkets, and as the Mind Control spell cast by Dinora was just too weak, she hadn't been able to detect anything amiss.
After a simple switcheroo, Eldra had set off with the fake formation trinkets which would activate the fake blood-purifying formation that Daneel had designed with Drakos in order to carry out the most visceral scene of a savior descending to save the damned possible.
Now, the main problems with the first part were threefold.
1) Some people had to die. There was no way around it. If the only thing that those inside saw was people falling to the ground, then they would have no reason to believe that they were dead. Even if they looked motionless, there would be no method to make sure. However, if some people just so happened to see a few of those motionless bodies exploding into showers of bloody mist, then it would create the chaos and panic he needed to make the nightmare come true.
For this, pure Mind Control was not an option. Later on, investigations would be made about who had died, and if it was found out that everyone was fine, then everything would be revealed to be fake right away.
It was also not possible to simply resurrect those who had died. At least, the ones collapsed on the floor could be said to have gone into a near-death state, which could just as easily be mistaken for death. The same was not possible in the other case, though. So, all in all, people really did have to die.
2) The Lanthanorians couldn't be in on it, as that would be too much of a liability.
3) There had to be major consequences for Lanthanor, too.
4) And finally, the three problems above had to be solved in such a way that even if the Heroes from the Big 4 came to investigate, they shouldn't be able to find any smoking gun that would reveal the truth.
It was only after seriously considering these problems and weaving them into his planning had Daneel managed to come up with something that felt like it would work.
The first problem had actually been the hardest to overcome, but he had done it in an interesting manner.
Just like the elves whom he had chosen to be killed during that time when he was in the Hidden Kill Sect in order to make Eldinor march on them, he had decided to choose those who deserved it, without any doubt.
Of course, Daneel didn't feel good about it, but if people had to die, then it was much better for scum like that to go instead of those who were innocent.
The problem was that those influential elves had been easy to identify: they had been avoiding the punishments for their crimes for ages, which made them stand out distinctively.
What Daneel needed to find was elves who were equally guilty, but not anywhere as influential.
This was mainly because the outskirts of the festival would mostly contain common people, who would be the ones that appeared to die.
Thankfully, it was a fact that he had a large, large pool to search in.
Almost all elves had chosen to attend this carnival, and it was even one that had been advertised as being for the 'good of their race'.
So, it was easier to find the ones he needed.
With the help of Katerina and Drakos's spells, Daneel had looked for and collected the lists of reports to authorities which involved gruesome crimes but went unsolved due to lack of evidence.
To his surprise, some of the main crimes involved those committed due to the feeling of bigotry.
It seemed that the individualism of elves also had this kind of consequence. In many instances where the personal opinion/belief of an elf was vehemently challenged by someone else, deadly fights ensued, which would usually result in lifelong vendettas.
In these cases, Daneel looked for repeat offenders who had happened to be skilled in magic and were able to remove all traces of the crime.
The other major crime was acts of planned violence against humans.
Some humans who didn't have much for themselves chose to settle down in border villages in Eldinor with no other choice. Yet, here, they would come under the effects of being those who belonged to the minority.
Besides, it seemed that there were always some elves who didn't want to get rid of the feeling that they were superior.
Rapes, murders, and in some cases, even torture were crimes against humans which were reported but not handled that seriously, as there were often those even in the policing force who chose to turn a blind eye. In many cases, the acts were even against human children by elf children who were generally more skilled in magic.
The only consolation was that these acts were in the minority, and mostly only in the villages and towns of Eldinor instead of in the capital. Otherwise, Eldinor would have long been tagged as a place that was hostile to those of other races.
All in all, Daneel had made a list of those who were charged with multiple crimes multiple times but weren't convicted, before making trips to them and using Mind Control to find out whether they were really guilty.
In the process, he had been exposed to some truly horrifying stories which once again made him understand just how cruel one could be.
Darkness really seemed to be something that lurked in all living creatures' hearts, regardless of race or gender.
Finally, those who were revealed to be guilty became the chosen ones who would die, exploding into a bloody mist so that they would let others know what fate awaited them if they did not run from the red veil.
Even in this, he made sure that there was no pattern, by also finding a few criminals who hadn't even been charged using their wit. As for the source from where he found them, it was the whispers he heard in each village or town he went to.
This was the thing that had taken up such a major chunk of his time, but Daneel had fulfilled it to perfection.
The second problem was resolved by using Aran to create a 'training exercise', and the third's solution was to have Drakos modify the formation he was making so that those who wanted to stop it would also be affected by that near-death condition.
As for the fourth, as Daneel hadn't hesitated to take even drastic measures, he was sure that even a Hero from the Big 4 would find nothing.
Also, he had added an additional trick to the solution of the third problem, which was going to come in very handy soon for his endgame in regards to Eldinor.
When he had seen the families of those who died crying, his heart had hurt, as he was the one responsible for their tears. Although the profiles of those who were capable of such horrific acts were such that not many of them had close family members, there were still quite a few exceptions to this rule. However, when he imagined just how many tears those people had caused, he tried to harden his face and turn away, but the memory of the pain of those families still got engraved in his heart.Yet, he couldnt help but think about how many more tears might have been shed if those families had found out the reality of the numerous horrific acts that had been secretly committed by the ones they were mourning.Still, did that make it right for him to kill them like this?Definitely not.This wasn't even the first time he was responsible for making a family cry. Back when he had killed those scum in the Hidden Kill Sect, he had known that their parents must have shed many tears, too.However, for some reason, this felt different...and as he thought about it, he had realized that it was probably because he now had faces to associate that fact with.
He knew that he was no perfect good Samaritan who could get things done magically with no morally ambiguous side-effects like these, but he also knew that that was impossible in the real world. In the real word, things couldn't be so black and white.
This plan needed to work for the future of Angaria, so he had just done his best. He just had to be satisfied with that, while being capable of dealing with his own feelings about himself, which he couldn't even figure out at the moment.
"Y-you! King Daneel! Wh-what happened?"
Finally, as Eldra woke up, Daneel shook his head to get rid of these sordid thoughts and said, "Queen Eldra, I gave you a fair deal and put you on the throne, but you repaid me by doing everything you could to weasel out of your end. By all rights, I should just kill you."
The words shocked her to complete alertness, and as the memories of what she had witnessed popped up into her mind, tears started to flow from her eyes before she screamed, "THEN KILL ME! I DESERVE IT!"
With a sigh, Daneel said, "Watch this, and tell me if your wish remains the same."
With a simple flick of his fingers, Daneel made the clouds below them part, which resulted in the sight of the area of the festival where hundreds of thousands of people were frantically running around while clutching the motionless bodies of their loved ones.
"Wh-what?! They're all not…"
"Dead? No, they're not. What you watched was an illusion. Basically, it's a long story. Even those whom those people are shedding tears for will come back to life soon. But what you saw would definitely have become reality if I hadn't stepped in. That was the true purpose of the formation you activated, after all. Basically, I saved your people. Again. Now, then, you have an important decision to make. You must already know that the oath between us is broken. I understand how abhorrent it is for an elf to pledge themselves to someone using a magical oath. So, I will just ask for your word that you will still heed my or-requests. If so, I will give my blessings to your continued reign as the Queen. However, if not, then you will be made to step down by force. Choose."
The words hit the Queen like thunderbolts, but Daneel had also dispelled the Mind Control spell on her, which allowed her to look back on the real memories, not the fake apparitions that she had seen due to the Mind Control spell, and see that what he was saying was true.
After taking a minute, she got an expression of pain mixed with determination on her face before she looked straight into Daneel's eyes and gave him an answer.
Hearing it, the King of Lanthanor raised his eyebrows, and internally, his impression of this elf also rose along with them.
With this, the rest of his plan was finalized. The stage was set, and all that remained was for the actors to take their places and begin the show.
Taking a deep breath, Daneel went over everything in his mind again, before telling Eldra what she was going to do.