Chapter 685 Returning to the Sect of Hedon
Daneel continued walking and left right after he said those words, but the loud sound he heard from behind him was enough to let him know that they had been quite effective.
Indeed, seeing his back as he confidently walked away, Erin was fuming while Drakos simply held her hand and waited for her to calm down.
She was also known for her temper, and sometimes, the Emperor had even used to give her a few days off on a few occasions as her work would be particularly 'excellent', especially in the area of torture, if her mood was bad.
Yet, she had modeled a unique Champion Path for herself from these emotions of hers, so there was no one who dared to tell her that she had to control herself and not be so impulsive.
After a minute, she finally took a deep breath and turned to Drakos before saying, "I see what you see in him. Maybe even the Emperor would have liked if he had been alive. But is he really reliable?"
To this, Drakos smiled and said, "I knew you would see it right away. I have no reason to believe that he is not. It has been an honor and pleasure being with them all these days, and I look forward to each and every thing that he will do. Of course, my perspective is a bit tilted because of the way I see the world, but I still believe that he is the best hope for Angaria. Just believe in him, and you'll be pleasantly surprised."
In response, Erin humphed and took Drakos's other hand in hers before saying, "Well, just like he said, actions do speak much louder than words. I'll wait and see what he'll do, before I make a decision. But until then… Like he said, it's best if I get this over with quickly, but we still have a couple of days - let's make the most of them."
…
After reaching a small cave that was also lit by invisible light sources, Daneel saw a row of huts stretching out that looked quite comfortable.
The others from the Sect of Hedon were quite surprised to see him in one piece, which was when Daneel asked around and found that the whole purpose of this delegation, which wouldn't have been necessary normally to escort just that ice ball as the Head or some other Hero could have done it easily, was to help the process of healing in different ways.
No one exactly knew what happened during this process of 'helping', but what they did know was that each person who came back always seemed as if they had lost something or the other.
Some turned into dunces from being quite smart before, and some who were typically easy-going would start to take things very seriously and even become paranoid.
Thankfully, it was temporary.
All of this was very weird, and because it completely creeped out each and everyone who even heard of it, coming here was something that was talked about in hushed tones with fear and only those who were really low on resources and wanted the pretty large payout that came from joining this delegation were those who would chalk up the courage to come on this trip.
Of course, there were others like the one whom Daneel was impersonating, too, who simply came because of their curiosity, and because they had been pretty bored in the sect.
Daneel missed his old identity that he had used the last time he had been in the Sect of Hedon, but knowing that this would be a short trip if everything went well, he just decided to go along and not put something irrelevant on his plate such as having to change whom he was impersonating.
Asking around, he also found that this healing process would typically take four days, but Drakos soon gave him the message that Erin had promised that she would be done in two.
Daneel was quite interested to find out just what method she was using, as even the most complex healing spell at his disposal advocated that regenerating such a complex organ of a human wasn't something that could be done in just a couple of days.
Yet, he didn't want to give her the satisfaction, as the spell was definitely something that was also a part of the inheritance of that man who had been the Emperor's enemy, which was clearly indicated because of the fact that the system found no clue of a spell that caused such weird things to happen in both the records of the spells he had obtained from the third seal and the memory of the Emperor.
By this time, Daneel had already gone through half the Champion Paths that he had obtained, and the reason he was taking it slow was that he was carefully analyzing each and every one and listing the pros and cons for himself. Each path he went through gave him a different insight into how each individual's mind functioned, and how the Will responded to that individual's resonance with themselves to lend them power. Of course, it was the Original Paths rather than those that were passed down which interested him the most, and he focused more time on them as they were also fascinating.
Although being targeted by a behemoth such as the Church might have made others become skittish, Daneel managed to calm himself down and spend the two days going through the rest of the Champion Paths, while also thinking of the other plans that he could use to get out of the situation.
Communication was completely closed off, and because he didn't have anything pressing to tell Eloise and the others, Daneel did not go and ask Erin for permission to use the closed channel that connected this place to the outside.
At the end of the second day, the same woman who had greeted them on their first day here appeared and said, "Please pack up. The healer was in a good mood, so she has already finished the healing. You will be leaving right away."
Over these two days, the others had been called, and Daneel had seen those strange things for himself. The pattern he had noticed was that facets of one's personality were somehow being flipped around by manipulating their consciousnesses, but as this was displayed during the aftermath of the spell that had been cast, Daneel didn't get enough clues to find out just what that spell was.
These things always faded in 24 hours, which was another interesting thing, and as the others heaved sighs of relief on finding out that they would be leaving this creepy place much sooner than expected, Daneel decided he would come unravel the mysteries here as soon as he was done with everything else on his plate.
"Young King, Erin asked me to tell you that she will be looking forward to your 'answers'. She has finished the healing, but Percy will have to stay in a coma for a few more days as it is needed for the body to adjust to the changes that have happened to it."
Raising an eyebrow and understanding that this was basically her saying goodbye without even coming by herself to do so, Daneel once again saw her arrogant side, which made him all the more motivated to crush it into nothingness as soon as he got the chance.
At that moment, he vowed that the next time he came to the sect, this Empire Spirit's attitude would be completely different.
On their way back, the only change was that Percy, who was in the transparent ice ball, had a cloth over his eyes in order to cover his eyes which had just been regenerated.
The Head arrived to escort them back, as he still had a bad feeling about something, and hence, he did not want to risk any delegation or, in fact, even any Warrior of the Big Four being killed by random ambushes by the Church.
Before they had managed to beat back the Church, this had been common, and now that that had been quite long ago, the Head did not put it past them to resume such activities. At that time, they had let the small fries such as those who had tried to take over the Kingdom of Lanthanor go, as they had had much bigger issues to deal with - namely, the Heroes of the Church who had required the entire High Council to chip in to defeat them.
There were no mishaps along the way, and as soon as the delegation reached the Sect of Hedon, broad smiles appeared on the faces of almost everyone in the delegation.
They instantly left to the building which dispensed rewards to get their fat paychecks for going along this hellish ride, and Daneel followed them, too, as it would be suspicious to not look forward to the thing that had enticed each and every one of them to volunteer for this trip in the first place.
After taking the reward, Daneel checked on the location of his impersonator's dorm, before heading there to pause and decide on his next step.
In Percy's consciousness, he had also been given a clear description of the infiltrator's face, so Daneel first set out to identify where this guy was.
This wasn't too difficult as, by luck, the guy he was impersonating was known to be one with a fragile ego who constantly went to those weaker than him to bully them into giving him whatever scraps they had. He only targeted the weakest, and he barely got anything of value out of it, but he did it mainly for the enjoyment that it gave him.
A classic bully, in other words.
Not even two minutes later, Daneel found the newcomer, who was chatting away looking completely normal in a group of those who were heading to a training session.
After finding his target, Daneel made sure not to pay too much attention to him, as he couldn't be sure whether the one from the Church had employed Hero-level spells which could detect if other people started paying any attention to them, or felt bloodlust towards them.
The system was the one which did the surveillance, and all Daneel had to do was stay within a few kilometers of the newcomer, which was quite easy. He continued perusing the Champion Paths while utilizing the prompt from the system to move around to make sure that the newcomer stayed in his sphere of surveillance, and soon, Daneel got a report.
It was pretty disappointing, though. In the span of a day, the guy hadn't been up to any suspicious actions.
Understanding that he should probably be patient, Daneel moved on to his next target - the Mad Doctor.
Another idea had appeared to him after spending those two days thinking - even though killing the Mad Doctor and eliminating the threat that he was before he attacked was not an option, there was one other thing that Daneel could do: weaken him and make it look like a consequence of the attack from Ashahell, itself, which would bring down his overall power and not make it so shocking when Daneel did whatever he decided to do in the fight that he would eventually have with the man.
Also, if this was possible, Daneel had also decided on another plan of action: finding out more about the Mad Doctor would definitely be helpful as it might come of use when he fought him, and one was always most truthful to themselves. So, if Daneel could touch the Mad Doctor for at least a moment, he could cast the Consciousness Link spell he had used before on Percy to find information about all the dreams that the Mad Doctor was seeing, which meant that there would be quite a high chance of finding something he could use even if he couldn't interact with the man or the dreams like he had done with Percy.
Yet, Daneel got a bad feeling about both of these plans the moment he set out to implement them, as the enclosure which the Mad Doctor was kept in was on such a level of lock down the Daneel could detect multiple Hero-level formations and even Hero-level individuals near the man as soon as he went within 100 feet of him.
How could the one from the Church manage to go through so many levels of protection?
Clearly, the Head was focusing on saving this Champion of theirs, whom he did not want to die as that would mean that they would lose quite an important resource. On top of his power, he was also a very experienced healer, and such individuals were indispensable on the battlefield.
As he continued watching though, Daneel got his answer - obviously, Heroes would not concern themselves with mundane things such as changing bandages and tending to the bodily needs of the patient. Some sect disciples were the ones taking care of these things, and as Daneel saw them, an idea suddenly came to him.
With a smile that would definitely have chilled the spine of the Mad Doctor if the man had been awake, the King of Lanthanor walked forward.