Chapter 474: Ivana
Kael knew what to do, he just couldn’t do it. Not yet.
There was a specific law he would require if he wanted to link the systems in such a way that allowed missions to be posted all through his systemverse.
Creating systems for each race was already the most he could do with his Conquering Essence.
Kael knew the perfect law for what he wanted to do but didn’t know how soon he would be able to find it.
For now, he would have to focus on other things.
Katari had taken the two dragon corpses and had gone into self-imposed solitary confinement on one of the arkships.
She had told Kael to give her a year, more or less, and Kael was waiting.
The dragon carcasses would only be able to push her closer to the next tier. Actual evolution depended on Katari’s efforts.
While Katari prepared to potentially storm tier 5, another thing was on everyone’s radar.
Isabel.
The fox lady who had been impregnated by a random fox block and betrayed the first prince.
This was serious news and it wasn’t something that was hidden. Kael purposely made sure that it wasn’t hidden and no one tried to hide it.
At first, it looked like the king had no intention of covering his son’s shame, but as time passed, the King’s true sinister intentions were made known.
Just as the betrayal wasn’t hidden, Isabel’s punishment was also made known to all who had to know what became of her.
Isabel’s life had turned into something that most wouldn’t wish on their enemies.
It seemed everyone had forgotten that the first prince, Ozia, was in fact extremely tyrannical, cruel, and was very arrogant long before he met Isabel.
Isabel had merely changed him for a while, covering up his darker side and making him feel all lovey-dovey.
Now that Ozia was left with no reason to hold back and keep his soft side, added to the painful betrayal, he swung back to the other side of the spectrum.
Isabel was kept on Planet Kareem, living with Ozia. Under the orders of his father, Ozia took care of Isabel, rather begrudgingly.
However, at some point, a video was released to the internet and further to the arkships.
The content of the video was especially pushed toward the low-status caste members, serving as a brutal warning of what would happen when the royals were crossed.
In the video, Ozia was toying around with a phone which he used to record what was happening.
His face couldn’t be seen but the sound of his voice was heard repeatedly throughout the length of the video.
Isabel was in the video, as well as another fox in his humanoid form.
In the video, four unknown lionesses in their humanoid forms were seen holding down one fox man and pressing him down to the wooden floor.
Ozia, still holding the phone and recording everything, walked over to Isabel whose eyes were filled with tears.
Ozia handed her a knife. Not just any knife, a carbon-steel knife augmented with his magic runes to become very sharp.
The knife was pushed into Isabel’s hand and Ozia ordered her to go cut the fox man’s penis off.
At first, Isabel didn’t want to do it, but Ozia wasn’t joking around. A powerful slap to the face caused her to bleed from her gums.
This also showed that Kael’s protection was no longer present. Isabel was completely at Ozia’s mercy.
With no choice, Isabel took the knife, bent down, and began cutting the fox man’s dung off.
Through the man’s screams, the audience understood that this was the same fox that Isabel had cheated on the first prince with.
There was nothing funny or fair about the video. This was just Ozia’s attempt to make an example out of all those who would think of betrayal in the future.
Kael’s handwriting was all over the production of that video, Ozia was merely an agent for his propaganda.
The video had the desired effect.
The humans on planet Kareem who saw the video on their internet spaces were confused and terrified. The one holding the phone sounded so young, yet so cruel and evil.
They were also curious about the origin of these strange people, seeing the fox ears and lion tails shown in the video.
On the other hand, the subjects of Kael’s kingdom received the news in silence. No one said a word, they didn’t dare to.
A lot of females were envious of Isabel and cursed her and blamed her for her predicament. In their eyes, only a stupid person would betray the first prince despite all he was doing for her.
Half of them didn’t know that they might have done the same thing if they had been in her shoes.
The message of the video was direct and sound; Betray the royals and suffer a really terrible fate.
Although it caused some resentment, it also set their minds straight and created awareness of consequences.
As for Kael and Ozia, the unforgiving father and son, all they had to do was wait for Isabel to deliver the child she was carrying.
Kael was willing to simply wait it out. Punishment was necessary but he didn’t derive any personal sadistic pleasure in causing suffering.
Unfortunately, Ozia wanted Isabel to suffer for what she did to him. He agreed with Kael, a brutal death would be too merciful, the mundane life a human might not be enough.
So he made a suggestion to Kael. The suggestion was so dark and cruel that even Kael was shocked.
Kael discovered that something might be wrong with his son, perhaps, the betrayal hit him way too hard.
According to Ozia’s logic, if Isabel were indeed carrying a Primordial Fox inside her womb, that would mean that its birth would be accompanied by some strange phenomenon.
The foxes were affiliated with the law of fire. Ozia expected that if their Primordial was born, he would be born bathed in scorching flames.
This wasn’t a problem as Isabel was a fire fox and could easily shrug it off during the birthing process.
But Ozia wished to give Isabel the Devolution Seed that very moment she was going into labor.
He wanted Isabel to deliver the child in the pure weakened form of a human, while the fox cub would probably be bathed in flames when coming out.
If Ozia did this and succeeded, Isabel would experience a level of suffering even Kael could not imagine.
It was evil, it was cruel, it was even somewhat artistic.
Kael was curious, but he didn’t agree to it. Not out of compassion for Isabel, but he preferred that there were as few complications during the childbirth as possible.
He didn’t want anything to go wrong.
The third Primordial Lion who died as a cub was evidence that anything could happen if one wasn’t careful.
Kael’s priorities were set straight and he didn’t care about Ozia’s extreme desire to make Isabel suffer.
////
Time flew by very fast.
Nine months came and went, and the day of delivery arrived.
Location: border region or a certain nation.
Inside an open courtyard at the edge of a desolate ranch, the wails of a vixen in labor filled the air, bringing a sense of joy and sorrow to those who heard her.
Outside the courtyard, ten shuttles were parked. Their lengths carried and some had to hover outside the ranch.
Most of the creatures here today were foxes, all of high-ranking status within the caste.
They pooled themselves outside the courtyard, their numbers in the hundreds. Some of them were tier 4 and most of them were tier 3 equivalent.
Their pointy fox ears twitched in harmony as they heard the cry of that fox.
Today was a day of joy and sorrow. It would mark the start of the foxes’ prosperity as well as the start of Isabel’s suffering.
Inside the courtyard, the temperature seemed to be rising constantly. The air seemed to twist with the increase in temperature.
Finally, the dreaded sound was heard. The cry of a fox cub.
The hearts of the foxes beat wildly, unsure of how they should be feeling regarding this.
One hour later.
The doors to the cottage swung open and out came two figures. Kael and Vixy.
As Kael walked through the doors with Vixy by his side, he took in a deep breath and felt the new power coursing through his body.
Just like that, his trip to this planet had resulted in him gaining the power of two different Primordials.
The contract with the little newborn Primordial was successful and did not come with any resistance, one of the benefits of making contracts with newborns.
As for the Primordial.
Kael turned to his right to look at the red-haired and red-eyed Vixy. Madame Vixy’s attention was currently on the little fox snuggled up in her embrace.
The little fox was no bigger than a small dog and it was bathed in fiery orange flames.
The flames licked Vixy’s skin and bosom but she was mostly unaffected. She looked down at the little fox with mixed feelings.
Kael glanced at Vixy’s face from the corner of his eyes, knowing fully well that she had been aware of Isabel’s betrayal.
Vixy had given Isabel pointers on how to woo a lion while still knowing that Isabel was cheating. She acted like she didn’t know, even Isabel didn’t know that Vixy knew.
Kael would have done something about this but it was not necessary. Vixy’s value to him had already begun to diminish.
"Ivana, that’s her name," Kael said to Vixy, causing the latter’s heart to beat in shock.