King Acacia, after hours of flying, could now finally see Earth in the distance. His speed increased another fold as he blasted through the atmosphere, allowing rings of flames to be deflected by his celestial energy. However, the sights he was greeted with were far and away out of his expectations.
He had been coming here at his fastest speed in order to help, but what he found was a war that was already over. In fact, much of the Ragnors and their allies were either rounded up, or had long since fled.
Even more surprisingly, now that his agitated state had calmed, he suddenly became aware that his wife’s soul was here instead of at the Ice Belt.
‘How did Kawa get here before me….’ King Acacia had no idea what was going on, but currently, there was a heated argument going on down below. In any other situation, King Acacia would have ignored it. After all, his goal right now was to find and stop Loki. However, without an understanding of the situation – a situation that had clearly drastically changed – how could he understand what next step to take?
“Father, I disagree!” Ire Pakal couldn’t understand what he was hearing.
His father had left with the unknown experts from before. But, realizing he was of no help to that situation, he came back in order to stabilize this situation first.
When he found his eldest son, Ire, about to kill Thor and Vidar, he immediately stopped him, much to the anger of his son.
“If we kill them now and shatter their faith seeds, we can cripple the Ragnors. Why would you stop me from doing this? Have you thought about how many of our own we’ve lost to them and their inhumane tactics? I was here listening the screams and cries of our own people being devoured by them. How could we allow them to live?!”
Ire didn’t dare to claim that he was fighting while his father wasn’t. After all, he was quite aware that Patriarch Pakal had been fighting a battle on a scale far larger than what was occurring here. In addition, he would normally never question his father. Especially not in public. Such a thing was a major taboo and much too disrespectful, even if he was the eldest son.
However, he couldn’t restrain himself. His boundless disgust for the Ragnors had started early. He knew their true nature. In fact, maybe a blood leeching will like the red crystals was the perfect representation of this clan of people.
Patriarch Pakal sighed. “You don’t understand.” He was calm and patient. Despite his son’s outburst, he didn’t reprimand him, not did he give way to anger. “With out power, it would be impossible to shatter their faith seeds. All we would do is alert the Ragnors of this universe.”
This was correct. Although Ire had understanding of the laws that governed faith seeds, he was still very much ignorant of matters concerning karma in conjunction with such things.
The Ragnors, because of their handicap, invested heavily karmic protections for their limited faith seeds. This made it possible not only to pull them out of the cycle of reincarnation much quicker, it also allowed for a barrier of protection that could last just long enough so that a faith seed could fade away peacefully.
It seemed that his father’s words had finally gotten through to him, but Ire was still not satiated. He knew that killing Thor and Vidar would bring untold calamity to this universe, but what did that have to do with them as Pakals? Was it not their goal to make their way back to their main branch?
Plus, there was protection of the gates. It wasn’t like the Ragnors could just make their way across the universes casually. Even if they used means other than the gates to cross, such a method would be ridiculously costly, meaning the Ragnors wouldn’t be able to invest a large amount to.
“Father, we have to think of the future. Even if we cannot shatter their faith seeds, killing them will be enough. Eliminating two of the five Ragnor faith seeds would be a great meritorious feat. Little brother Caedlum could use this to gain a foothold in the main Pakal branch before taking it all over.”
Despite how sound his argument sounded, Patriarch Pakal still shook his head. “You are too naïve. Maybe it is my fault for spending so much time on Caedlum’s development and neglecting you. The main branch cannot be taken by diplomacy, nor can it be negotiated with.
“You see them as family because that’s what’s in your heart. However, they will never place you in their hearts as you have them.
“They may take your brother in initially, but after understanding his background, there’s no doubt that they will use him… Do you remember why the Ragnors became aware of our Blood Sacrifice technique?”
Ire remained silent, a deep frown setting into his features.
By now, most important figures understood that the Pakal branch of this universe was forced to flee from the main Pakal Emperor God Clan. During that escape, they took with them techniques passed down by the Demon Sage, of which included the Blood Sacrifice Technique.
However, a few years ago, Patriarch Ragnor, or Loki, as Dyon had come to know him, started a war to steal this technique. So, the question was… How did he know they had it? Why would Loki be so sure that this fleeing branch family had such an important technique? Enough to risk his exposure and potentially pre-emptively alert the Belmonts in starting a war?
The answer lay with Caedlum’s faith seed, Asura.
Caedlum’s birth was a day of both darkness and light for Patriarch Pakal.
For one, it was the day that marked his wife’s inevitable death. She was a simple woman with decent constitution that Patriarch Pakal had chosen among those of this universe. As a Patriarch of a God Clan, women like her were hardly difficult for him to attain. But, he took a liking to her. She was a gentle and reassuring figure in the face of the cards he had been dealt.
However, that day was also a light of hope. Although faith seeds wouldn’t be detected from far distances unless they were awakened. If an expert was in close proximity, it was possible to detect even an unawakened faith seed, given that you actively looked for it.
Out of sheer desperation, Patriarch Pakal had fallen into the habit of personally checking every newborn Pakal child. It just so happened that the chosen among them was his own son.
This truth though… Was a double-edged sword.
The day that Caedlum awakened his faith seed, would be the day that the Pakal main branch knew of their survival and their general location. And yet, if they wanted revenge, Caedlum couldn’t hide his faith seed forever…
At first, Patriarch Pakal wanted to take his son’s faith seed and shatter it. After all, one required a certain blessing in talent to be chosen by a faith seed from birth anyway. That meant that Caedlum would likely be an astounding talent even without his seed.
But the problem with that plan was something that left Patriarch Pakal horrified… Something he didn’t have the heart to tell anyone else, but also fueled his will to want to destroy the current Pakal clan as well…
The very same karmic bindings found on Ragnor faith seeds…. Were found on Pakal ones as well…
This only meant a single thing. While Patriarch Pakal was lamenting over the inhumane actions of the Ragnors and their despicable nature, his own clan had been acting in this same way behind their backs!
Truthfully speaking, the Pakals only did this because they were forced into a competition with the Ragnors. If the Ragnors suddenly monopolized the majority of faith seeds in the quadrant, they’d be at a huge disadvantage. This was because even though the Ragnors only had five faith seeds, a single clan despite having more, wouldn’t usually manifest more than 3 or 4 in a single generation.
However, this ‘excuse’ didn’t stop Patriarch Pakal from being sick to his stomach. When he thought about all of the innocent lives needed to make what he saw possible, the anger in his heart only burned stronger.
At this point, anyone who was paying attention to the history of this quadrant would have noticed this much earlier. Why? Because around the same time Thor and Vidar died, Asura died at the hands of the Dukes and Duchesses too.
It was no coincidence that all three faith seeds appeared at the same time… They were all tied together by the same death and the same bloody massacres…
When Patriarch Pakal saw this truth, he was at a loss for what to do. Maybe the reason he wanted to save Thor and Vidar now because he saw in them the very same shackles that once bound his own son…
At the time, Patriarch Pakal could only lament his own misfortune. He prepared himself to forget about Caedlum ever having a faith seed, making sure to seal it away so that even his son would never detect it.
However, that was when his wife asked him what was wrong. Her smile was so simple and sweet that it almost undid all of the knots in Patriarch Pakal’s heart.
After hearing that her son would be forever shackled, Mistress Pakal paled. Her heart ached, unwilling to have her son share such a fate.
So, she called in her sons. Three in total. One in her arms, and two growing toddlers, one of which was Ire. She spent weeks with them, never taking the time to do anything else. Although this confused Patriarch Pakal, he had no reason to stop it. After all, it was just a mother spending time with her sons.
But then, on one day, that simple woman that Patriarch Pakal had fallen for, said words so profound that they shocked him.
“To wash away karmic strings created by the utmost selfishness… You need karmic strings forged by the utmost selflessness…”
That day was the day Patriarch Pakal ended his wife’s life. For the sake of her son’s future, she sacrificed everything to buy his freedom.
Fortunately, her simple philosophy worked. Unfortunately, it came at a price even beyond her life.
To extract the essence of a person is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Every time Dyon obtained the essence of an expert, it was through that expert themselves. However, Caedlum’s mother was a simple woman. She didn’t have a celestial soul to detach from herself to fulfill such requirements. As such, Patriarch Pakal was forced to use the Blood Sacrifice technique on his own wife…
This freed Caedlum from ever having to worry about the karmic ties of his faith seed, letting him have all the time he needed to grow into the man who could take revenge on the clan who did this to his family.
However, it also alerted the Ragnors. The use of such a powerful technique would hardly go unnoticed, especially by someone so familiar with it like Loki.
This started the cascade of events that led to the Legacy World battle Dyon was forced to flee from.
“Do you understand now, Ire? My son.” Patriarch Pakal placed his hand on his eldest son’s shoulder, a tired look in his murky brown eyes. “There is no need for you to feel this deep seeded loyalty to our clan. You need only feel anger. Be calculative. Be smart. Don’t act based on emotion, act on your better judgement. Do you understand?”
Ire was stunned, his eyes glistening in anger. But in the end, how could he not understand?
King Acacia waited patiently for the son and father to finish their moment together. Patriarch Pakal hadn’t bothered to hide their conversation from him, likely because he recognized King Acacia and Dyon’s father in law, and thus trusted him as a result. Either way, this was just yet another tragic story of the martial world… A place never short of endless cruelty..
“King Acacia, I’m glad you’ve made it back. A friend of yours wanted me to tell you that your wife is safe and sound.” Patriarch Pakal turned to King Acacia, smiling amiably.
King Acacia couldn’t help but bitterly smile. All this time, he had done next to nothing.
While King Belmont felt horrible for not doing enough, the truth was that he at least defeated enemies. King Acacia had done none of that.
However, when he heard Kawa was safe, he breathed a sigh of relief. And also hearing that it was a friend, the figures of Amell and Nora couldn’t help but surface in his mind.
“If it’s them, then there’s little to worry about.” King Acacia said with a smile. It seemed like all his worries were for nought. But, Patriarch Pakal’s complicated gaze told a different story.
“Is there something wrong?” King Acacia probed.
“The situation might be more complex than we give it credit for. It’s already been a few hours since Nora began attempting to decipher the formation shrouding the Belmont Holy Land, but it doesn’t seem like she’s made any progress.”
“A formation Nora is struggling with?…” King Acacia couldn’t fathom just how complex such a formation would be.
“Yes. From my understanding, its been catalyzed by the death of its layer, making it many times stronger.”
“Death…” King Acacia had mixed feelings about this piece of information. But, at the very least, one of their stronger enemies was dead. That was good.
Patriarch Pakal nodded, “It may be best if you head over personally. Nora said your True Empath abilities may help greatly.”
King Acacia agreed. He may be able to find some weak points that could help. However, just as he was about to leave, an unexpected group of people blocked his path although there was no hostility in their actions.
“King Acacia, Patriarch Pakal.” The group bowed, following the lead of an otherworldly beauty who couldn’t have been more than 25 years old. This, of course, was Ulu.
“Is there something the matter?” The two of them nearly spoke at the same time, both being used to be the leaders of their clans.
The truth was that they were still apprehensive about this clan. With their intelligence networks, they had long since understood that the new holders of Planet Nix weren’t so simple. Somehow, they had overthrown the previous clans entirely, before establishing their own… Within 20 year!
“We’ve heard of your problem, and would like to help.” Ulu responded simply.
“Really? How can you do that?”
Despite being questioned, Ulu didn’t seem to mind too much. “We’re in debt to Dyon, we owe him our aid. If not for him, our young lord would have died by now.
“As for how, we have many sealing experts here. Although we can’t claim to be unmatched, if given a few minutes to prepare, our elders can lay down a formation suppressing seal. This suppression seal should work on even moon level formations depending on the situation.
“If we couple our expertise with yours, King Acacia, undoing the formation can be done by force. No?”
King Acacia nodded. This plan could work. If they weakened the barrier, then used him to find its weak point before they all attacked it together… This plan really could work.
However, it all hinged on the Planet Nix members. King Acacia knew they were looking for something in this universe. Only time would tell just what their motivations are…
**
In the Belmont Holy Land, Dyon now stood before Chenglei, and although they were separated by a wall of Daiyu ready to die for, Dyon could feel his fear and apprehension as he leisurely walked out of the cave.
Dyon wouldn’t forget the humiliation Chenglei tried to make him suffer at his hands. He had burned the image of his fists careening through the air to connected with his face.
The Belmont Ancestor had stopped attacking and now stood half a step behind Ri and Madeleine. He had long since sensed the source of Amethyst within Madeleine, and seeing how she deferred to Dyon, he could after as such too.
“Don’t think I’ll beg for my life.” Chenglei spoke words directly to Dyon after the battle quietened.
Dyon stared at Chenglei as though he was looking at a bug, an insignificant existence that he could snap out of existence in an instant. How could he care abut such words now?
Lionel and Evelyn were still awkwardly tied, only capable of the faintest of movements. But, they were put within eye view for Chenglei, helping him to understand that even his hidden allies had been captured.
Seeing Dyon’s attitude, Chenglei’s veins bulged as he clenched his jaw, unwilling to accept this turn. It seemed that now… he had no choice.
“Kill them.” Dyon spoke commandingly, leaving the Belmont Ancestor with no choice but to follow orders. However… That was when something unexpected happened…
Chenglei’s eyes sharpened.
“Warrior of the Daiyu. Beast of the skies. Ancestor of mine and blood of mine.”
Dyon’s eyes widened as the Dragon King immediately understood what was going on. Beasts could have Ancestors too, although their process required reading a writ due to the connection beasts had with the universe, it was still relatively simple.
Chenglei was summoning an Ancestor of the Daiyu!