440 Shit King 1 (1/2)

Caedlum and his elder brother both looked toward their father. When had they ever seen their father react in such a way? He was their rock, an anchor that had held their small Pakal branch family up even in the face of being essentially cast away to these lands. If it wasn't for him, how many times would the Ragnor clan have trampled all over them?

And yet this man was practically shaking in his seat, paling as though he had seen a ghost.

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?