"Aran, Cassandra, stay here and handle the situation. You have your orders: minimize casualties and capture as many Axelorians as you can. Luther, with me."
Giving this order through the oathstone, Daneel reached the Border Gate before beginning to teleport towards the Royal Palace along with Luther who had also just arrived.
On the way, he couldn't help but think back to the perilous situation he had just been in.
If he hadn't taken the precaution with the clone, although he wouldn't have died, he would definitely have been injured and taken out of commission by the Axelorian Commander's attack.
"Any word on the technique he used to raise his power>?"
[Negative. Phenomena Analysis Module could not gather enough data for a detailed analysis. Preliminary Analysis shows that energy stored inside the body is burned for a boost in strength. As it is an explosive reaction, the person who activates this technique requires 6 months-1 year to recover to their peak strength.]
Indeed, it was just as he had thought. Near the end of the battle, his opponent had pulled out all stops while disregarding his own life.
Of course, with the clone, Daneel had multiple ways to obtain victory even in that situation.
For instance, he could have pre-cast another spell using his power as a Paragon or even used explosion trinkets to further injure the already cut-in-half commander.
Yet, he had chosen not to do so for one reason: he had enough things to handle right now.
The loss of an Exalted Human was very high for any force in Central Angaria. These were the assets that a force depended on to lead their expeditions.
Especially in Axelor, figures such as these were used as role models to fire up recruits to train as hard as they could.
As such, the death of one in the hands of a hated enemy would push public opinion towards obtaining revenge at all costs.
Daneel had no intention to handle a crazed Axelor who had lost their commander. Thus, he had let the man go which also ensured that his tricks were still concealed.
After all, just like the ploy with the space locks being setup using ballistae, any means he used would be a one-time thing.
With the Exalted Mages of Axelor and even spies from other forces watching, they would definitely be able to come up with countermeasures which meant that he would never be able to use the same strategies or attacks again to obtain the best results.
Hence, although it did irritate him to no end that he had to conceal his power and let such a powerful enemy go, he had gritted his teeth and done so knowing that it was the right thing to do.
Besides, he had been expecting the attack from his primary enemy, the Withering Leaf Sect for quite some time now.
Since it had become clear that they weren't in the Axelorian Army, he had suspected that they would use this distraction to attack the most important part of the Kingdom: the Royal Palace.
After all, he was their primary target, and they knew very well that he would be hiding in the safety of the formation.
After multiple teleportations, the duo reached the main gate of the Palace to be greeted by a sight that made both of them redden their eyes with anger.
50 soldiers were pinned on top of the gates, with their body spread-eagled and blood flowing freely to make puddles on the ground.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
From inside, the sound of a battering ram could be heard, making the Daneel snap out of his shock before hurrying inside.
Unlike the war at the border, things here had already been derailed from the plan he had hatched to defeat the Withering Leaf Sect in one go.
....
As the Eldest Prince placed the last soldier on top of the gate of the Palace where he had grown up in, a wide smile greeted his face.
It had only been 10 minutes since the Vice Sect Master had given the order that there would be a direct assault. Yet, the Royal Palace had already been breached successfully with the members of the Sect heading towards the quarters of the King.
Their plan had been simple: use the Axelorian Army to distract the majority of the Lanthanorian Army, and use this window of time to kill the King and obtain the oathstone, through which they could take control of the Kingdom itself.
What stopped any other force from invading Lanthanor in a similar fashion were two things: the Dragon Heart Formation in the Palace and the Army who had formations to deal with high-level Mages and Fighters.
The second had been rendered moot temporarily using Axelor.
And the first had been handled by using the treasure of the Sect which they had safeguarded for centuries: the Orb of Dissonance.
According to what the Sect Master had told him, this was a peak-Champion Level one-time use trinket that could temporarily disable any formation in any force in Central Angaria.
Apparently, it had been gifted to the Sect by a traveling individual whom the then-Sect Master had saved out of the kindness of his heart.
Finding out that this individual had actually been someone whose strength couldn't even be measured by the scale present in Angaria, the Sect Master had made use of the opportunity to obtain this trinket as a gift.
Knowing that it was something that would be able to decide victory and defeat in a fight of any scale, it had been kept away for centuries before finally surfacing now to be used to take revenge.
Thus, with the Dragon Heart Formation and the Army both out of the equation, Lanthanor was actually one of the weakest forces in Central Angaria due to the fact that they didn't have even one Warrior Level figure in the entire Kingdom.
The Sect, on the other hand, had two: The Sect Master and the Vice Sect Master. Of course, this was only the information known to the outside.
These soldiers had actually been the ones guarding the gate; without a word, they had been slaughtered and pinned up even though the strongest among them was only a 3rd Stage Eminent Human Fighter.
Rage had already overtaken the minds of the Withering Leaf Sect members on seeing that the one who had made them run with their tails between their legs was actually so near to them.
Without further ado, they had directly cracked the orb to disable the formation completely before setting up hidden teleportation detection formations and hurrying inside the Palace.
Maids, servants, soldiers, guards: they killed whoever they came across, leaving a trail of blood in the passageways of the Palace which was quickly devolving into chaos.
All in barely 2 minutes after teleporting to the main gates.
The teleportation detection formations were similar to the ones on the border gates of Lanthanor: if anyone teleported out from inside the Palace, they would be able to know and track that person. Thus, if the King tried to flee by teleporting, they would be able to gather at his location in a second.
Thus, cutting off all avenues for the King to escape, they made their way to the chambers whose doors were fortified using the strongest formations gold could buy.
1000 Withering Leaf Sect Members had invaded the Palace, with 500 waiting outside.
The other 500 were currently all gathered in the large corridor of the King's Chambers, shooting all sorts of attacks at the door to break it apart, while waiting for any message if the King chose to flee.
Although no more soldiers had stopped them yet, it was obvious that Lanthanor must be scrambling to assemble enough to assault them.
300 Amateur Human Mages. 197 Eminent Human Mages. 1 Exalted Human Mage. 1 Amateur Warrior Mage. And one Eldest Prince.
All rained down attacks on the door, which seemed like it wouldn't even be able to hold on even a second more to protect the King of Lanthanor.
...…..
Teleporting to a predetermined location inside the Palace, Daneel shuddered with anger due to the images he had just seen of countless soldiers and Lanthanoreans massacred without a care by the invading Withering Leaf Sect Members.
It hadn't been supposed to be this way.
Although his plan had included the Withering Leaf Sect Members reaching the doors of his chamber, so much blood hadn't been needed to be shed.
Before coming to the Palace, Daneel had been considering whether to use non-lethal means to capture this long-time enemy of his.
Now, that consideration was decisively discarded.
If it was a massacre they wanted, it was a massacre they would get.