As his eyes kept flitting around the many screens in the room while searching for any indication of the Withering Leaf Sect's whereabouts, Daneel recalled the events that had led up to this moment.
Since the attack on the village in Lanthanor, it had become quite clear that he could not win this war by acting like a normal ruler.
If he utilized only the assets which were present with most forces in Central Angaria, the war would definitely see many thousands of Lanthanorians dead.
Thankfully, Daneel was a special individual who was in possession of the anomaly that was the World Domination System.
From the actions of the Withering Leaf Sect, it had been quite clear that they wished to anger him into making the foolish decision of sending troops into the Valley.
After all, they had killed the people who had trusted in him and elected him to be their King. How could he sit twiddling his thumbs when they were killed indiscriminately?
Although Daneel's blood called for retribution, his mind had managed to calm him down.
Thinking logically, the best way to win this war was to chase the Sect out of their home-ground.
After all, he knew that they had been encamped there since centuries, meaning that they definitely had multiple traps and countermeasures all around the Valley which would definitely spell his soldiers' doom.
Thus, thinking of all the options he had, Daneel's memory of the events that took place in regards to the Ho Chi Minh trail back on Earth had inspired him to think of something which could chase the sect out of the Valley.
He needed something which could be deployed in an instant, but also controlled so that it could target what he wanted at least to a certain extent.
Like a lightbulb, the idea of using mosquitoes had appeared in his head.
Once, Eldinor had purportedly modified mosquitoes in order to develop the economy of their then-failing nation.
Contacting Eldra, he confirmed that this was true after she visited her nation's secret library in order to peruse the records.
Apparently, the Kingdom of the Elves had also been in massive debt at the time, making it so that they had to resort to this desperate option.
Thankfully for them, it had worked out and resulted in Eldinor developing into a force that now stood on top of Central Anagaria.
After getting the remaining details of the research, Daneel had excitedly fed the information to the system before stating his request.
"System, using the Technique Development tool, is it possible to do similar modifications to a species?"
[Negative. Technique Development-2 Tool is incapable of this task.
Biological Modification-2 Tool required.
Biological Modification Tool: Allows host to biologically modify an organism according to given parameters.
Level-1 Tool can modify microorganisms.Cost: 3000 EXP
Level-2 Tool can modify insect-sized organisms. Cost: 10,000 EXP]
This message itself had caused Daneel to feel a rollercoaster of emotions. First, he had lost hope seeing the negative answer. Then, he had regained it seeing that there was a tool which could accomplish the task, but his hope again plummeted seeing the high cost.
Although he had earned 10,000 EXP after taking control of Eldinor through Eldra, he had intended to keep that EXP as a backup in case he ran into any sticky situations.
Yet, this opportunity was too good to pass up. Daneel knew that this was the best option he had, as it was guaranteed to accomplish what he wished.
Just as he was about to decide to spend most of his reserve to buy the second level of the tool, the system sounded again in his mind making a slight smile appear on his lips.
[Due to data available, system can perform modifications on this specific species with Biological Modification-1 Tool.]
This was music to his ears.
Now, the only thing that remained which was holding him back was that this move might attract too much attention which was very undesirable.
Only, this thought appeared side by side with the two images of the Lanthanorians who had already been killed mercilessly by the Withering Leaf Sect.
Without any more hesitation, Daneel had proceeded to buy the tool and modify the mosquitoes according to his plan after ensuring that there were certain countermeasures so that he wouldn't implicate the entirety of Angaria in order to strike back effectively.
Everything had gone smoothly from that point. The rabbit was definitely frantically running through the foliage, looking for a way to safety without knowing that there were cages waiting all around it.
Indeed, Daneel had already succeeded in booby trapping the area around the Valley to deal a devastating blow to the Sect as soon as they exited.
The last thing remaining was that he had to give the signal to release the trap from above as soon as they appeared on the screens.
Yet, at this moment, Daneel couldn't help but feel that something was off.
Everything was going TOO smoothly.
He wasn't someone new to situations like these where a single oversight could result in catastrophic losses. Thus, he had already started to develop an instinct that warned him that something was wrong.
He had already obtained information from Eldinor about the formation inside the Valley which prevented teleportation.
Putting himself in the Sect Master's shoes, he realized that the possibility that a trap was waiting for them outside the Valley was too high.
If that was the case, what would he do?
"My King! Movement spotted!"
An urgent shout from one of the individuals manning a display pulled him from his thoughts.
Indeed, in one of the screens, a group of people could vaguely be seen cautiously exiting the Valley.
There was a barrier around them which defended them from the ravenous mosquitoes which clouded his vision, preventing him from seeing just how many were present in the group.
Yet, seeing the barrier's size, it was quite obvious that it was a large group.
"It's them. Should I tell the soldiers to drop the bombs?"
Seeing his son hesitating, Robert asked this question. There was only a small timeframe before the group teleported away, and the order had to be given ASAP.
Yet, the King of Lanthanor stared at the display screens in front of him as if trying to look for something.
In barely 30 seconds, the group would teleport away.
1, 2, 3 …. 15 seconds passed, and there was still no answer from the King.
Just as Robert was about to ask again, Daneel shouted suddenly, startling the whole room.
"CASSANDRA, HEAD OVER TO QUADRANT 56 RIGHT NOW! TELL ME THE STATUS! ALL SOLDIERS, HOLD!"
Hold? But why? Their dreaded enemy was right in front of them!
Although this question passed through the minds of those listening, they remained silent while inwardly scratching their heads.
Meanwhile, the display trinket which showed Cassandra's viewpoint shifted as she teleported to the place where Daneel had commanded her to go.
For easy mapping and referral, the Valley had been divided into quadrants which all the soldiers and commanders had memorized.
As the image in the trinket cleared, many of the room stood up and gasped with shock.
A much larger group, similar to the one seen by them was emerging from the Valley in her vision.
Yet, as they looked at the trinket which was supposed to be displaying the image at this location, they realized that all was normal.
"Th-the display is…. Different.."
As the man who was supposed to be observing the display trinket of quadrant 56 said these obvious words, the spell of shock broke in the surveillance room.
Urgency replaced the shock, as this larger group had already almost reached the spot where they could teleport away from.
"ALL SOLDIERS! CONGREGATE AND ATTACK!"
Seeing each waiting soldier teleport from their locations and appear above the actual group of the Withering Leaf Sect, Daneel let out a sigh of relief.
Somehow, the Sect had managed to replace his communication eyes with others that were broadcasting either pre-recorded images or images from different locations.
By doing this, they had almost managed to get away from the clutches of Lanthanor.
Alas, at the last moment, they had been foiled due to bad luck:
A long snake's head had been visible in one display trinket, but its tail had been absent in the trinket which was supposed to be displaying the rest of its body.