“What do you mean by that?” Sofia asked with a puzzled face.
“Nothing, just talking to myself.” Cain quickly brushed it off. Zaleria who was listening remembered her encounter with the elf woman when she touch the link in Cain.
‘That woman was tied to the world tree, could she be in passion of the world tree shard?’ Zaleria stared at Cain as she thought of that. He was hiding a lot and she could feel it. The man in front of her might be a jackpot or a disaster.
Clap! Cain clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “The most important thing now is saving the beast god, let’s focus on that.”
“Hold up, what happened to the purgatory shard?” Alen interrupted him. Cain sighed and recited what happened at the mountain peak.
Alen’s face paled, “So the shard might have fallen in the hands of a great wyrm.”
“I wouldn’t say fell, that thing had magic that resembled Sofia. He was in possession of the shard from the start. If he had her.” Cain replied. The whereabouts of that shard were unknown.
“But that is still bad, we mustn’t let…”
“That’s enough, what happened had happened. If we don’t focus on the beast god now we will end up losing the second shard.” Cain cut him off.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go now.” Hati said as she stood up. She was ready to jump into the rift behind her father.
“No, we aren’t. We will only end up dead if we rushed in.” Said Cain. He wasn’t ready for a fight, and neither did the others. Zaleria was the only one who can probably fight without dying immediately. If the beast God was level 40 and he was struggling against the earth dragon. There was no way they can win if fought him directly.
“You’re not stopping me,” Hati growled as she stood up, two tails emerged from her back. Making the total three. “Get in my way and I will kill you!” She swung her claw at Cain as a threat. In her eyes, he was locking her in this room and preventing her from helping her father.
Thud! The girls quickly surrounded her. Each of them was ready to fight if needed.
“Don’t even try,” Sofia said with flame raging from her palm.
Alice only stared at Hati with a menacing smile. Selena only growled with her claws at Hati’s neck. Gracie already wrapped her metallic wire around Hati’s hip and pointed a knife at her heart.
“Wait don’t. She…” Alen gasped. Hati was going to bring him a heart attack. She needed to calm down.
“Let her go. We shouldn’t fight among each other.” Cain said and the girls moved away from Hati. Can could see how exhausted she was so he didn’t see her as a threat.
“We’re not going to sit still. If we can’t fight, we will help your father win.” Cain scratched his head as he thought of a way to help.
“The dimensional rift must be strong from the inside. We know that since those are fighting inside yet it didn’t break.” Cain thought back to his maze. It would break easily under such stress. The reason for that was that he had the core inside the maze.
“There must a structure to the magical nature of that rift, do you know where the core might be?” Cain asked Alen. If Cain manages to reach the core he might be able to enchant the rift and give the beast god an advantage.
“Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen the core when he started creating the rift. He did kick away immediately after all.” Alen said as he started thinking. He and Cain were the two most experienced mages present and this was their area of expertise.
“He might have used some that already existed. Could it be the shard?” Alen asked.
“I doubt that. If he used the shard, he will need to hang it inside the rift, which is risky. I say he kept the shard inside his body and used something else.” Cain said as he looked at Hati. ‘No way, she lacks the needed power.’ For a moment, he considered if the beast god might have used his daughter as a conduit but then brushed the idea.
“He could have created it just from his power, you could don’t you?” Zaleria said as she looked at Cain.
She was talking about the mansion they are in, this spell didn’t have a core.
“I’m a special case.” Replied Cain. He was using his mad soul as a core for smaller spells like this. If the dragons hadn’t experimented on him he wouldn’t be able to do this.
It was then that something clicked in Cain’s head. He looked again at Hati.
Why there were two souls in her body? The Fenrir shard was in her mother’s body…Hati only inherited her father’s magic…The shard was keeping the sick mother alive…The beast god used the shard power to transform into the great wolf Fenrisulfr… The beast god named both souls, which meant he knew about their existence.
“Hati, would you mind coming here? I would like to directly appraise the magic inside your body.” Cain called her.
“Why would you want that?” Alen asked.
“Yeah, I’m not allowing you to touch my body!” She growled at him.
“It’s a wild guess but the shard might be inside you and not him. Do you know of Skoll?” Cain asked.
“Where did you hear that name!” Hati gasped.
“So I’m right, do you know to whom that name belongs?” Cain asked. He wanted as much information as possible.
“That’s the name of my dead twin sister, father said she died before being born,” Hati replied with a pained voice.
“Sorry for reminding me of something like that, would you mind coming close. We need to act fast.” Cain said. To him, it was almost clear.
“Do it.” Alen nodded to her, they had no choice but to trust Cain for the time being.
Hati awkwardly approached Cain and turned around. Cain placed his hand on her back and focused as hard as he could. This wasn’t a mere magic detection, he tried to grasp the intricate details of her soul to find if the shard was inside her.
As he was focusing, he felt as if his consciousness were being pulled down to her inner world.
“You, what brought you here?” He could hear a woman’s voice calling. It sounded identical to Haki but sounded a bit deeper.
When Cain opened his eyes, a chained Haki was looking down at him. Her body was imprisoned inside a giant glass flask.
Cain quickly looked around him, he felt as if he was in a dream. “Only father ever walked here, what are you to dare lay a foot in this place.” She growled at him with a raging face.
Cain could know it, they look similar but that wasn’t Haki. That woman was Skoll, the glass flask must be the shard.
“I’m but a mere enchanter. Do you know what your father is facing right now?” Cain asked.
“Father is no more, he already died alongside our mother he sacrificed everything to give us a chance to survive!” Skoll said with a sad voice as her chain rattled.
“What do you mean,” Cain asked with a worried face.
“I the one who mocks, sister is the one who hates. Father gave his body and life to the beast god in exchange for our survival.”
Skoll said as the world started to rumble. Cain had touched something he shouldn’t have.