Chapter 883 The Story End
As the rest of those who were present wondered what the reason could be behind the King's sudden outburst, a flurry of thoughts were going through Daneel's mind.
The Overseer had always presented himself as a perfect being: with no weaknesses, fears or faults that could be used by anyone if they wished to go up against him.
He had the resources of the entire continent behind him, and there was so much power at his beck and call that it couldn't even be imagined. Over the years, he must definitely have accumulated countless weapons and objects of war, and innumerable Heroes whom he must have bound perfectly to himself, to follow his every order, by promising all sorts of things and tempting them using the name of the Order.
Hence, even without him realizing it, Daneel had started to think of the Overseer as some insurmountable being against whom any kind of battle would be very, very difficult.
So… Hearing that he was actually just a beaten, wretched being who had had no option but to run from the Emperor and hide himself in whatever corner he could find felt so, so good.
He couldn't even put what it meant into words: it gave him so much relief that it allowed him to see the mistake that he had made, which was accompanied by the realization that he should never succumb to anything like that again.
It wasn't that he had grown afraid of the man- no, rather than that, it was just a heavy pressure that would constrict anyone's creativity and make them feel as if they were boxed in, and cornered.
That kind of situation was fine if it was for a little bit of time, and it might even lead one to break past their limits, but if one found themselves in that box for prolonged durations, then it would only have negative effects.
"Don't be so happy- if he found the right resources, it's possible that he might've healed his spotted arse in all these thousands of years."
This didn't deter Daneel's happiness at all, though.
"You won't understand. Continue."
It didn't matter that he might be healed now- all that mattered was that Daneel's perception of him had changed, and that would definitely have many positive effects that couldn't be described now.
If the being in front of him had a body, Daneel was sure that he would have shrugged, but because there wasn't one, it simply continued its tale.
"If you say so…'nyway, that's the gist of it. I guess you could call us unlucky, but I don't think many'll see it that way: we had a lotta things that we didn't really value when we were back on the Mainland, and later, it was too late. We thought that we might have gotten ourselves a lotta breathing room by winning this war even tho' we didn't really wanna fight, but we ended up gettin' destroyed. Yeah…that's pretty pathetic. So… Let me get to the stuff that you might be interested in. I was one of his foremost commanders, you see, so I know a LOT of things about him, and a lot of things about all of the methods that he could've used. We even trained in the same damn place. He was a level above me, but we had access to the same resources."
It was almost as if the one in front of him was trying to say that he wasn't really that weak when compared to that leader of theirs, but Daneel ignored that attempt and simply looked forward to see what else there was to hear.
"That goddamn attack from the Grand Inheritance thingy was definitely felt the most by him- although the rest of us were smacked hard, too, it was mainly by the after-shocks of the attack that spread out. I gotta admit that that Emperor of yours used his shot perfectly- he only had one, and if it had been wasted, we would've won. Okay, no use thinkin of that now- anyway, the body of our leader, which he had invested a lot in, was directly destroyed, and because he was of the selfish type who hoard all the resources for themselves, the gap of power between him and us was very wide. This was why those f*ckin' after-shocks were powerful enough to kill us all, or at least put us close to death. Anyone who managed to live were maimed and eaten by these things which they couldn't control like I did, as they didn't have a way to calmly go about the task like I was able to. The attack was also a two-pronged one- to ensure maximum f*ckin' up, I guess. One was aimed at his consciousness, and one at his physical body. What our dear pissin' Leader did in that situation was pretty smart, actually: he had the option of surviving in a very, very weakened state, and I know this because I know his power perfectly. His body would've remained in one piece, but it would've lost all its power, and he would barely have been able to operate at the level o' power of those that you call Champions. His consciousness would've been terribly wounded, so much so that he might even have turned into a blabbering idiot. Knowing this, and only having an instant, he made the decision that he would let one be destroyed, and try to survive with the other. He somehow offloaded a part of the attack on his consciousness onto his body, and that resulted in it being completely turned into the tiniest particles possible, while his consciousness was able to survive in a very injured state. No one else knew where he fled to after that, but I know, because in that state, no one can really control the thoughts in their noggin' from comin' out. He kept saying 'Overseer', and after that, a life-saving trinket-the most precious one that he had, zoomed off in a particular direction with his ass in two. I would've loved to have one, too, but I didn't, so I could only find my own way. I knew no place to go to on the continent like he did, so I chose the next best thing: this one, which I was able to enter quite easily. I was injured, two, but because of an ability usin' which I could burst out with a lot more than what I was capable of for a short period of time before entering a hibernated state, I was able to use that period o' time to the fullest effect. I ran in here, killed everyone outside, and hid in a vault. My body crumbled due to the exertion, but by the Lord's grace, there was that primitive, but useful thing which could hold consciousnesses. Before hibernatin', I also took control of these pets and made sure that they would live on even tho' it took even more of a toll on me, because I knew that I would need 'em if I was found. After doing everything, I slipped into a long, long sleep, and it was only a few thousand years ago that I woke up. Don't look like that- there's a reason I'm tellin' you my story. I'm pretty sure that my dear Leader must have had to do the same thing: he was injured, so he could only place down a set of instructions before hibernatin' for a long time. So-"
"Do you have an ability where you can make a different individual out of your consciousness, and have him have different ideas, while hiding your true self after giving a certain set of instructions to this individual?"
The rest of the pieces had been given to him, so Daneel had known that this was the question he should be asking.
"How the f*ck did you know that? Yeah, it's possible, and that shitlord was even quite proficient in it!"
"Well…it all makes sense now."
Getting up again, Daneel let out a sigh.
Finally. Finally, the mystery regarding the Overseer had been cleared, and it felt pretty damn good.
It was obvious that that leader had known that the position of the Overseer would be the best one to occupy if he wanted to position himself to succeed at at least some point later in time, even though he had failed then.
However, very strict rules were required for one to qualify for this role: they had to have the good of Angaria in mind, and of course, that leader had only had the opposite.
Hence, the solution was to create a facade of himself that would satisfy all the conditions required, while working towards a certain set of conditions that would not seem diabolical, at first, but would actually play into the downfall of the continent quite directly.
All that he was waiting for, now…was a war situation to develop.
Daneel could almost imagine it: he would wake up from his long nap, refreshed, ready to take over the continent that had been prepared for him on a silver plate. He must have also figured out a way to bypass the limitations after gaining full executive control of the Order that would be granted to him when war was imminent because he had had so much idle time, and he would definitely be laughing uproariously while he succeeded in his goal, even though he had been thwarted once by the sacrifice of a great man.
But that…was only if Daneel had nothing to say about it.
Taking a deep breath, Daneel looked around.
There stood the monstrosities, still frozen.
And in the distance, even though he couldn't see them now, there lay the resources that he had come for.
Elysium was supposed to be the future for Angaria, and hence, the resources that were stored in the primary vault were of an amount that would definitely not be depleted even if this guy had had so much time to expend them.
In all this time that he had spent on the continent, Daneel had always been held back in some or the other way. Some times, it was resources, and in others, it was someone that he had to be wary of.
All bets were off now, though, and he had even managed to obtain so many things, even though all had seemed lost.
With all this…could he really justify even taking in another breath of air if he didn't use it to the fullest?
He had said that he would set out to Dominate.
And now…it was high time that he kept his word.
With a glint unlike any that had appeared in his eyes in all these years, he turned around with a flourish, and in his mind, he said:
"System, I guess it's finally time for me to earn the name that you used to call me with until now…"