Unlike the Ragnor God Clan, the Pakal God Clan had not come to this universe on a mission. Instead, under the enmity of opposing branches and due to permeating inter-clan warfare, Patriarch Pakal had fled with his family.
In the process, many of their best and brightest had died and only he remained of this original Pakal branch.
He alone reached this universe. He had been young and green. In fact, he had relied on the disunity of this universe to grow in the shadows before fully establishing the Pakals again. And now he had a ray of hope in his youngest son to raise their branch back to their former glory.
But, what could possibly make him react in such a way?
"Father?" Caedlum lightly probed.
"Ah…" Patriarch Pakal responded, but still seemed to be in a daze before he shook his head to clear his mind. "Caedlum."
"Yes, father?"
"This Dyon boy… You and him together. Do you understand?" Patriarch Pakal spoke a few words, but the weight of them stunned Caedlum.
All his life, ever since he had been found to hold their Pakal family's faith seed, his father had given him the responsibility of bearing their future on his shoulders. But now he was saying to share that burden?
Caedlum didn't know whether he should feel relieved or not. In fact, he was more confused than anything.
Because he had been so focused on trying to learn demonic will in the legacy world, Caedlum had never met the demon sage. As the saying goes, that's what fate held for them.
Had the Demon Sage seen Caedlum, he would have immediately recognized the bloodline within him. How could he not? He was among the most formidable Pakals in history. Although he, himself, never transcended to leave behind a faith seed of his own due to the unfortunate circumstances of his life, that didn't stop his legend from being among the most pervading. All he would have had to do was see Caedlum and he would have never even given Dyon a second glance.
Everything would have lined up perfectly. In fact, the Demon Sage might have even been happy about giving his legacy over to Caedlum. After all, the story behind why Caedlum's Pakal family branch was kicked away would have deeply resonated with the Demon Sage. Why? Because it was partially the Demon Sage's fault.
"Father… Are you sure? Why? Does it have to do with this Demon Sage he mentioned?" Caedlum was quite intelligent in his own right. Considering Dyon had only stated two names, and one of them was from the completely unrelated celestial deer sect, the logical conclusion was this demon sage. But, Caedlum didn't know Pakal Clan history to the extent his father did. He spent all of his time cultivating to live up to his father's expectations, so, how could he?
"After the conclusion of today's event, I'll tell you everything. But, he needs to be there as well." Although Caedlum didn't know it, his father had already decided to wholeheartedly protect Dyon as though he was a son of his own. If it came to it, and King Belmont didn't go far enough, he would have no qualms about stepping in for Dyon should he need the help.
That said, considering what Patriarch Pakal had seen from Dyon, he was too intelligent to do anything that left him at a severe disadvantage. That likely meant he already had a degree of certainty that King Belmont would act.
'What an interesting boy…' For the first time in decades, Patriarch Pakal smiled. He could finally see a road.
Suddenly, Pakal felt a heavy gaze pierce through the void and land upon him.
A sneer appeared on Patriarch Pakal's features. 'You're quite rude.'
A light snort filled Pakal's ears. 'It seems you've been keeping up in your cultivation.'
'What do you want, Ragnor?' Pakal had little patience at the moment. And he definitely didn't want to deal with such an enemy invading his private space. The Pakal and Ragnor's were not on good terms. If it wasn't for giving face to King Belmont, they wouldn't even be in the same arena right now.
The Ragnor had stolen one of the very few legacy techniques Patriarch Pakal had been able to salvage in his trip across the universes: The Blood Sacrifice Technique. Even when Dyon had revealed the location to them, another bloody war had erupted that resulted in the Ragnor, again, taking possession of it.
Patriarch Pakal never understood why the Ragnor wanted the technique so much. He knew the history of it. In fact, it was because of this very technique that the Pakal Clan had been split. Some had wanted to make use of lives to increase the strength of their clan and thus finally force the Ragnor into submission. While Patriarch Pakal's faction had been wholeheartedly against it. Although that was merely a single point of contention, with there being many others, it was a point nonetheless.
However, the problem with the Ragnor using it was that they didn't have the leeway in this universe to use the lives of its citizens as they pleased. The Belmont would never allow such a thing, lest they lose public favor. So, the Ragnor wanting it was absolutely ridiculous because they'd need to use it on a much larger scale than the Storm family of Focus Academy had. A scale which would never go under the radar.
'Can't I just catch up with an old friend?' Patriarch Ragnor's voice was suave and gentle. He came off as a refined man. But, those who knew his ruthlessness would know better.
'Get to the point.'
Patriarch Ragnor chuckled. 'Nothing much… It's only that I think I heard a name just now that sounded very familiar…'
Pakal froze. 'Could he possibly know? They're just a Ragnor branch family who should be far removed from the main branch. How could he know such deep seeded lore? Even my own sons don't know…'
'A familiar name? What do you mean?' Despite his surprise, Pakal responded without delay, less he give himself away.
Patriarch Ragnor's voice faded away. 'Haha. Just a coincidence then…'
