Within the coldest reaches of the Ice Belt – in the very same solar system that housed Patia-Neva's former home – King Acacia watched silently as his wife slowly healed.
Much to his sadness, her nine tails didn't grow back entirely. In fact, she only had a single tail now.
He couldn't help but absentmindedly stroke her soft fur, unable to forgive himself. He should have stayed instead, but he was too weak! He had been forced to let his own wife protect him, and look at the result? How could he be happy with this?
He was grateful that Kawa would be able to remain by his side, and with their soul bond, they could communicate just fine… But, to delude himself into thinking everything was okay when it wasn't… He just couldn't do it…
"Edrym…" A faint voice entered King Acacia's mind. It was weak, but it was there. "You have to go back, only you can deal with him… No one else can… If you don't hurry, everyone will die!"
"What do you mean? I don't understand anything you're saying. You said he was a Saint, but why does that mean it's only me who can defeat him?"
King Acacia was a True Empath, and he could tell that his wife wasn't lying nor exaggerating, but that didn't mean he could read her mind to the finest detail. He truly was confused!
"Do you want to know why I lost so quickly? Why Patriarch Ragnor didn't dare to attack when the both of us were there? Why he only made a move after you left?" Kawa tried to explain things as quickly as possible.
"It's because if he attacked with you there, you would have seen through it immediately! He isn't a celestial, nor does he have the combat power of a celestial. He injured me by using Patriarch Cavositas, not himself! He only made it look like he was the one to injure me so that you all would hand him Dyon willingly!" At this point, Kawa's small body was shivering.
She had been screaming and struggling the whole time, trying to tell everyone that it was nothing but a trick, but she had been forced to watch as her son in law traded his life away for hers.
At this point, King Acacia was starting to piece some things together…
The Ragnor would never send a celestial of theirs here, they were much too valuable to them…
Patriarch Ragnor was never a celestial, he had been relying on Patriarch Cavositas' battle prowess all this time as a puppet to make it seem like he had that level of power. At most, he was a peak level saint!
He didn't attack while King Acacia was present because King Acacia's True Empathy would have seen through it completely. His tricks would have been laid bare and King and Queen Acacia would no longer have to attack with reservation, wondering when he would act!
"But… That still doesn't explain why I'm the only one… We still have some hope in Amell and Nora returning." King Acacia responded.
"Edrym, think about it. Do you think a person who can fool celestials into thinking he was a celestial is a normal person? Do you think someone capable of toying with planets and clans behind our back like this is a normal person?" Kawa struggled to get up, weakly balancing on her small and delicate paws as she looked at her husband. "If it wasn't for that man, the Kitsune wouldn't have found us so quickly. We could have watched Ri grow and fall in love together… Instead, it was ripped away from us all so that he could chase away the biggest threat to his plan – you."
Crystal like tears fell from Kawa's blue eyes. "If it wasn't for his manipulation, Patia-Neva would have never thought he had to watch the slaughter of his family to improve his dao, nor would the Patia-Neva clan have been used to fuel Patriarch Cavositas' cultivation…
"He never planned to kill me. Because if he did, you would automatically go after him. He tricked us all, knowing that you would take me here to be cured…
"That man… He took so much from us…"
"You mean he's…" A sudden realization hit Patia-Neva. There was only one Ragnor capable of throwing an entire universe into chaos… Only one capable of fooling even the strongest of experts…
"He has the second strongest faith seed in the whole of Ragnor clan history," Kawa said softly, "He completely fooled me with his illusions, allowing Patriarch Cavositas to land near fatal blows on me. I was able to kill Patriarch Cavositas in the end but….
"He's Loki, Edrym…"
King Acacia suddenly realized that everything his wife had said was truly no exaggeration. If he wasn't there, Loki would simply run wild through their forces. While other Ragnor clan faith seeds celebrated power, Loki's faith seed was the only one among their rankings that celebrated cunning…
Loki's abilities were truly outstanding. They focused on a branch of cultivation very few had ever explored, something one might call magic in the mortal realm. Much like array alchemy, it manipulated the laws of universe, however, instead of using the soul as a proxy, it was much more efficient and used energy cultivation as its basis…
The use of magic was so rare in the martial world, that very few knew of how to counter it and even fewer could, even if they knew… This made Loki near unmatched as long as he stayed hidden… His ability to manipulate the situation and use illusions could not be matched.
This was how Loki made it seem as though he could manipulate celestial energy… In reality, he couldn't do such a thing at all, he just had to make it seem like he could…
Kawa was right, maybe the only person in this universe capable of stopping Loki… Was King Acacia…
But now he was hours away from the conflict. Even if he rushed back as his quickest speed, would he even be there in time?
