Chapter 77 The Church Attacks
1 week later.
"The Church Of Rectitude has come to deliver this Kingdom from the bane of the evil Nobility! In 3 days, come to the gate of the inner city when the sun is the highest in the sky to witness the righteous priests strike down the King and the Royal Family! All hail the almighty Saint of Rectitude!"
Posters with sayings like these were everywhere. Overnight, they had somehow sprung up on most of the walls around the outer city.
Although the guards managed to remove all of them by the afternoon, word had already spread throughout the outer city.
Some were skeptical, knowing that the Royal Family was not something that could be defeated so easily. Some were scared, as they had done many deeds hand in hand with the nobles which would mark them for purging if the Church took over.
Most knelt and prayed at the graves of their loved ones, who were taken away unjustly due to the King turning a blind eye.
They had already resolved themselves to follow whoever sated the desire for revenge that had been growing in them for many, many years.
As long as they were given what they yearned for, they would forever etch the deed into their hearts and be willing to follow that force to the death.
This was exactly what any usurping force wished for. To ensure a smooth transition of power without resulting in much unrest.
After all, the citizens were the lifeblood of any Kingdom. Blinded by his desire to live longer, the King had indeed made a grave mistake by letting matters reach the present state.
All his family had done was lay more and more seeds of hate and distrust in numerous people. Now, they had all finally bloomed.
As Daneel walked the streets, he could see the tension in almost each and every citizen's faces. These were just simple people who did not want their descendants to be treated the same way they were. To achieve this, they would follow anyone who gave them even the slightest hope.
Right now, there were 3 main forces that Daneel was keeping an eye on:
1. The Church Of Rectitude: As things stood now, they would mostly be the ones who would lead the charge.
2. The TriCobra Society: Chances were that they would move after the Church was weakened. There was no possibility of an alliance between these two because of the highly conflicting ideals.
3. The Royal Family and The Withering Leaf Sect: Some unknown alliance had brought these two together. Regardless, they would be fighting to keep control of the palace until the formation could be completely mastered.
These were the only forces that had actively moved resources to contest for the throne. Although some more were also present, they were only keeping an eye on matters.
As for Daneel, he was mostly unnoticed by all 3 of these forces. The only attention he was drawing was due to his 'master' who was a figure of unknown power who might or might not take part in the struggle.
The goal of the church was simple: Invade the palace, kill the Nobility in front of the citizens and drive away the other forces to hold control of the palace and decipher the formation.
The TriCobra Society's motives were currently unknown, but one thing was obvious: they also wanted to kill the King and take control of the palace.
As for the King and the Vice Sect Master, all they wished was to defend until the formation could be completely mastered.
Seeing these three motives, Daneel had understood one thing: the palace was the key. Whoever managed to hold the palace for a period of time would emerge as the winner in this struggle.
In fact, in the last three years, he had analyzed many guard formations of smaller establishments. These formations worked similar to enchanting: objects were enchanted with specific spells and placed in certain arrangements to bring out the desired effects.
Yet, when it came to the palace, the system had simply admitted defeat quoting that the complexity was too high.
After obtaining the information about the exact date of attack, Daneel had already started deploying his faction around the city according to his plan. Right now, all that was left to do was wait for what would definitely be an eventful day.
The day of the attack dawned like any other, yet many citizens of the Kingdom of Lanthanor had had sleepless nights either due to excitement or fear.
In Daneel's case, it was a mixture of the two. His plan failing would almost definitely result in the deaths of countless people including him.
Yet, he had no choice. He could not stand back and watch his Kingdom be usurped by an outside force which did not care about its people. Even the Church only wanted a Kingdom of sheep who would follow their doctrine and be willing to sacrifice themselves blindly.
For his parents, for his friends, for his nation, he HAD to succeed, no matter what came in his way.
Getting dressed and making sure that he was carrying everything he needed, Daneel headed to the gates of the inner city.
A large crowd thousands of people strong had already gathered, and he had to wade his way in to get near the front. In fact, he had seen many people from the countryside also approaching the city.
Seeing the numbers, he approximated that close to a million people would soon fill the streets of the outer city. It seemed that even the peaceful people in the countryside had had enough of the decades of injustice.
Reaching the front, he met up with Joshua and confirmed that everything was ready. The time of the attack was here, but he saw no one around him who stood out as priests.
Knowing that they would mostly appear above, he kept his eyes on the sky.
Sure enough, in a few seconds, the familiar figure of Radagast appeared in the air.
With his hands respectfully folded, he was standing beside a potbellied man in a grey tunic. This balding man seemed to have amiable features, with thick lips and a small nose.
With a pious expression, he spoke with a voice that resounded throughout the outer city.
"People of Lanthanor! I will only ask you one question: HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH?"
"YES!", came the reply as an untold number of voices screamed and yelled, shocking Daneel who was watching the sheer intensity held by a group of people united as one.
"WOULD YOU LIKE TO BREAK DOWN THESE GATES AND STORM THE INNER CITY?", the man asked, his voice rising in pitch with the increasing frenzy that was spreading across the crowd.
"YES!", came the reply again, while each and every person remembered either the injustices that were done to them or the injustices they feared would be done to their children and family if they let the nobility continue their rule.
Raising his hands in the air, the man made a gargantuan hand which seemed to be made of air appear above him.
Seeing this hand appear, Daneel knew that there would be no speeches to rile up the crowd like he had expected. Like Master Jonah said, the Church were very straightforward after all.
"THE CHURCH OF RECTITUDE GRANTS YOUR WISH!", he shouted, gesturing forward as with a world-shaking BOOM, the gates were rent open.
Events were already affecting his plans. He needed to get to a location after the Church gathered the attention of the people, but now, he had time.
As the crowd around him rushed forward like a sea, Daneel could only try to fight the current and struggle to move in the direction he had to go in.