THUD
As the scene of the explosion trinkets dropping on the remaining group of the Withering Leaf Sect appeared on the display trinket in the throne room of the Black Raven Kingdom, both the Black Raven King and the old man stood up in a rush that displayed the shock they felt.
Practically all the forces in Angaria knew about the skirmish between the Withering Leaf Sect and the Lanthanor Kingdom.
In fact, this wasn't very rare. Throughout the history of the continent, there had been numerous instances where a Kingdom which had just undergone a change in leadership with tumultuous events had ended up conflicting with a different force soon after.
This was a pattern that occurred too much to be called a coincidence. Each time, the mettle of the ruler who had newly ascended to their position would be tested.
Although the conflicts seldom resulted in forces being completely destroyed, it was always the case that a force would drop in power while another would rise.
If the one which rose was the one which had the new ruler, then it meant that that ruler was truly someone to look out for.
Thus, in a way, this war with the Withering Leaf Sect was the test that Daneel was undertaking under full view of all the other forces in Angaria.
And so far, his results had already made many people's jaws drop with awe and shock.
All of them were well aware of just how dangerous the Valley of Mist was. Yet, they had never imagined that someone would have been capable of chasing the Withering Leaf Sect out using such a potent method.
Indeed, the sight of the groups exiting with the swarms of mosquitoes had already been branded into the minds of all the rulers watching. Having already tested the mosquitoes using spies they had sent out privately, they knew perfectly just how dangerous they were.
All of them reached one conclusion: the King of Lanthanor was not someone to mess with, unless they wished to meet the same fate as the Withering Leaf Sect-chased out of their home, and then bombarded as soon as they thought they would get to safety.
Apart from the wit and intelligence that the King of Lanthanor had displayed so far, the other thing that highly disconcerted them was his means of being able to develop such a terrifying weapon.
"A-are you sure about the mosquitoes?"
Again remembering that sight of the swarms which looked like they could devour anything and everything, the Black Raven King couldn't help but ask this question again to the old man.
With a tone that didn't sound very confident, the old man replied, "Yes. The area around the Valley of Mist is completely barren, meaning that the mosquitoes will have no food at all. They will be constricted to the Valley, at least for a period of time. The Big 4 will definitely not sit idly seeing a threat arise that can affect the continent. They will step in, especially if the King of Lanthanor does not deploy any countermeasure he has to stop the mosquitoes."
With a nod, the Black Raven King sat back down.
Since the events surrounding this war had begun, he had rejoiced thinking that the Lanthanor Kingdom would be weakened, which would further this goal.
After all, the weaker the other party was, the easier it was to negotiate with them.
Also, in the case that the King of Lanthanor actually hadn't been aware of the ill effects of the Echer seeds, the blow that came from losing so much fertile land would definitely put the Kingdom on its knees, making it ripe for plucking.
Thus, he had already made many plans.
Even though that mysterious master was an anomaly, he had thought that there was no way he could create enough impact in the situation without directly intervening.
Yet, he had been gravely wrong.
From the deployment of the mosquitoes to the bombardment of the sect, it clearly showed that everything had been thoroughly planned out by Lanthanor.
Was this truly the same Kingdom whose King he had spoken to on the border all those months ago?
Had they done a mistake by scheming against him?
Although these thoughts kept appearing in his mind again and again, the Black Raven King ruthlessly snuffed them out.
He had already cast his die, and the only thing he could do now was to be as cautious as possible with this Kingdom which was showing itself to be more formidable than it had ever been in decades.
....
Meanwhile, at the East Border Gate of the Kingdom of Lanthanor.
A middle-aged man with a walking stick ambled through the gates of the border wearily before joining the line where checking was taking place.
On reaching his turn, his name, face and location were recorded before his body was checked using a trinket that looked like a metal stick.
After making sure that there were no unannounced trinkets on the man, the soldiers let him through.
On reaching a discreet location in one of the small forests in the outskirts of the Lanthanor Kingdom, the middle-aged man turned into the Knight before sitting down on a stump of a tree.
Chuckling to himself at the primitive methods of these backward Kingdoms, the Knight took out a parchment he had declared as a communication trinket.
As he waited for news from the Withering Leaf Sect Master, he thought back to the thorough methods used in his homeland to detect those who could be hiding their identities.
Indeed, in Central Angaria, it was a huge problem that one was able to change their appearance using the disguise spell to go where they wished. Although the time for which they could maintain the spell was limited, it still meant that Exalted Human Level Mages, which was the minimum level for casting the spell, could be the best spies if they wished.
The only thing that held forces back from using this loophole in every force's security was that each Exalted Human Mage was an asset that would just be wasted if they were sent on suicide missions.
Of course, there had been incidents when forces had resorted to this method when situations became truly desperate. In a way, a parallel could be drawn in this matter between Angaria and Earth: even on Earth, countries didn't resort to launching nukes(which is similar to sending Exalted Human Mages on suicide missions) because they knew that their targets would retaliate in the same way, resulting in mutual destruction.
After receiving the message from the Withering Leaf Sect Master about what had happened, the Knight raised one eyebrow, slightly impressed that the King of Lanthanor wasn't a wimpy kid who didn't shy away from resorting to ruthless methods.
These were the kind of people whom he loved breaking the most.
Telling the Sect Master that he was proceeding with his plan, the Knight turned back into the middle-aged man.
As he was only a peak Exalted Human Mage, he had no choice but to morph back into his original form to reset the disguise spell.
Of course, his mage level had nothing to do with his fighting prowess, especially when one took into account the flame which he held inside him.
According to all the reports, the King of Lanthanor was at most at the beginning of the Eminent Human Mage level.
Because of his weak level, it was known that he spent all of his time inside the Palace, under the protection of the legendary Dragon-heart formation.
Touching the communication trinket again, the Knight said in his mind, "Formation-disruption trinket received. Proceeding with secondary mission: assassinate the King of Lanthanor. Target is rumored to be at the 4th Human Mage level. Mission success probability: 100%"
After making this report, the Knight carefully put the trinket back in his pocket before walking out of the forest.
Making his way to the capital, he looked forward to crushing under his foot the King who had dared to put himself in the limelight even though he was so weak that he needed to rely on external means to protect himself.
....
Meanwhile, in the surveillance room in the Lanthanor Kingdom.
After temporarily getting a grip on his thoughts, Daneel proceeded to order the soldiers and the commanders to carefully transport the prisoners over to Lanthanor.
Right after the bombardment, he had given orders for the soldiers to move in just like how the elite mage and fighter units had managed to capture the strike team of the Withering Leaf Sect when they had tried to attack Lanthanor.
Although he was happy that he had managed to save all of his forces, he was worried about what the Withering Leaf Sect would do.
After all, as they said on Earth, the most dangerous animal in the woods was a wounded one.