Chapter 475: The Wardens
Vixy’s heart was shaken when she heard the name Kael had bestowed on the new Primordial and her future replacement.
She felt like a stone was lodged between her chest and throat. Like she was forcing herself not to cry, even though she didn’t even feel like crying.
Memories flooded her mind and brought her to scenes and events of the past. She was reminded of that day, that fateful day when N’bayé asked her to choose between her life partner and herself.
She still remembered the clear look of shock on Ivan’s face after she chose him to be sacrificed. She saw him be picked up by N’bayé and tossed to Kael who devoured him.
This was something that was known by almost no one besides Kael and his consorts.
So when Kael named the newborn Primordial Fox, Ivana, most of the creatures didn’t know and couldn’t tell that it was related to Vixy.
What was worse, Vixy was named the advisor and mentor for Ivana. Basically, Kael was just turning her into a nanny for the Primordial Fox.
Every day that she looks at Ivana, Vixy would be reminded of her dead and gone beloved, Ivan.
There were a lot of questions surrounding the birth of the Primordial Fox, like how such a coincidence could happen. That the first prince’s former lover would cheat on him and the result would be a Primordial Fox.
It was just too convenient, so convenient that one could only blame Kael’s good luck.
As for Kael, he had already made the Primordial Fox sign a contract the moment she was born. The Primordial Fox, not knowing any better, simply did as Kael suggested with his spirit energy.
Kael did not take advantage of her though, even though he could have attempted to. He liked the current landscapes of his systems and wanted to keep things orderly.
The Primordial Fox was affiliated with the law of Fire. With the contract signed, Kael gained access to Fire Essence while the whole Fox caste gained their own system.
This was the first straightforward power Kael would be getting that didn’t have too many restrictions.
Fire Essence was simple, not complex.
Unlike the regular foxes who gained more tails as they got stronger, Ivana was born with all nine tails.
Each tail represented one of the nine types of flames that she could control.
It was just like Eidel and the Fire Lions and Lionesses. Whenever they understood or comprehended the use of a certain type of flame, they would grow a new tail.
Eidel herself had mastered the Original Fire, Soul Fire, and Frost Fire. She was currently in the process of comprehending a new type of flame.
The Primordial Fox was born with all nine tails, this meant that right from the get-go, she would be able to control all nine types of flames.
All she needed was training.
This also meant that Kael gained her powers, having the ability to control nine types of flames as well as some physical changes to the number of tails he now had.
This was a significant improvement for Kael as he had jumped the hassle of comprehending the flames one by one.
Normally, because of the consort contract he had with Eidel, he had to wait for her to comprehend a fire type before he also got access to it.
Now, he no longer needed to wait.
This didn’t mean that Eidel’s value to him went down though. Whether Eidel was giving him power or not, she was still his consort and his helper, an extension of his power and will.
The next day after Isabel had given birth to Ivana, Ivana was taken away on a shuttle to an arkship where she would be trained and brought up in the name of the golden lion.
Isabel never got to say goodbye to her daughter. Vixy, the very person who had helped her win the heart of the First Prince did not stand up for her.
Vixy had sent a private telepathic message to Isabel as she lay tired and dirty in the ground.
"Shame, I didn’t think you would let it get to your head. Now look at what you’ve done to both of us,"
Vixy’s telepathic message was vague and she didn’t elaborate further, just walking out of the room with Ivana the flaming fox held in his hands.
Isabel’s motherly instincts had kicked in and she wanted to go after Vixy to rescue her child.
Alas, life was no longer going to be favourable to her.
After the delivery, everyone forgot about Isabel, she was now left in Ozia’s hands.
Isabel didn’t want to be with Ozia, he was too scary and every moment with him felt like she was dancing with death.
Unfortunately, she had no choice.
That very same day, Ozia came down and forced the Devolution Seed into her body
So began the rest of Isabel’s life on Planet Kareem. With everything else that was happening, her life was pretty insignificant and no one could afford to care about what Ozia wanted to do with her.
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With the birth of the Primordial Fox out of the way, Kael had just two things left to do before going to heaven.
Wait for Katari to evolve and do some governance restructuring before leaving.
Now that he was going to heaven, Kael needed to be sure that everything would be in order even though he left.
There was still a shortage of Tier 4 equivalent creatures even after so long. Most of them had depended on external boosts to reach tier 4 in the first place.
Thankfully, almost all of Kael’s current lion lords were at tier 4, almost.
Each lion prince had a slot to fill for their lion lords. Each of them could have up to a hundred lion lords under them.
Burdo had already filled these long ago. Ozia, Jeremiah, Silas, Victor, Raymond, and Kratos were yet to even pick their Lion Lords.
Kael urged them to do so as it would be the lion lords who would be in charge of monitoring his kingdom while he was away.
Kael was going to take all his children and consorts to heaven with him, he was also going to take the majority of the lion population he had in his arkships.
Only the lion lords would be left behind.
This was already in line with how other Lion Kings operated their clans from heaven.
Usually, the Lion Kings would remain in heaven, overseeing everything from there.
The lion princes would serve as links between the lion kings in heaven and the lion lords in the universe. They would make sure tributes were sent from the lords to the kings.
The lion lords would then remain in the universe, taking control of the clan’s Vassal forces. They were to manage the political landscape while maintaining a flow of tribute to their princes and lion kings.
That was what Kael intended to do now. He would go to heaven with his princes while leaving the lion lords here.
His vassal forces would also be managed by them thoroughly. Kael would personally keep an eye on the Primordials while the lion lords would just do every other thing.
Asking the lion lords to keep an eye on the Primordials themselves might not be a good idea.
Under Kael’s supervision, all his lion princes started choosing their Lion Lords.
The political backstabbing that ensued was crazy. Former friends and families of pride leaders turned to each other for a chance to be in Kael’s Ol-mytee Clan.
Each Prince had their own criteria and requirements, so it was hard to monkey branch their way into a certain lordship.
With seven princes only, Kael would at most have seven hundred Lion Lords indirectly under his command.
This was okay for now, each lion lord was a pride leader and would have their lionesses helping them out. But once Kael achieved the expansion he was hoping to achieve in heaven, he would need more princes and more lords.
And the best way to get loyal princes was the primal method.
Thankfully, besides Katari, all his lionesses were pregnant and would be due by the time they were already in heaven.
At the same time, to manage Planet Kareem and keep it as an asset under his clan, Kael created an organization called The Wardens.
Their job was to maintain stability on Planet Kareem, ensuring that humanity never developed technology to the point of achieving interstellar travel.
The Wardens were present to watch over and keep the human population under control. They would infiltrate every corner of human society, schools, banks, charities, businesses, research, military, legislature, and many more.
Natalia was very helpful to Kael in this area as she somehow used the connections she had made to some point to make everything run smoothly.
They were a subtle organization that had Original Creatures at the top and flawed humans like werewolves and others at lower ranks.
Of course, this would lead to the creation of countless conspiracy theories as the collective awareness of humans wouldn’t be so blind to constant stagnation.
Kael didn’t care though. By the time he established The Wardens on planet Kareem, it was already the end of the one-year wait.
Katari should be stepping out of seclusion any moment from now.