Chapter 485: Schemes and Preparations.
Kael and Ozia walked into the arkship through one of the open hatches.
Once they reached the passageway, space twisted around them as a teleportation formation surrounded them.
Meanwhile, the roars of Exalon mixed with the sound of cannon blasts echoed from the outside.
A clear target had been made. King Vander would be turned into a scapegoat.
It was a pity though. This was a true breed tier 7 fortune lion. They were hard to come by and harder to evolve into.
This was one of the minority demographics of the lion race.
The loss of one tier 7 fortune lion was not a small thing.
Yet, Kael commanded the end of King Vander without batting an eye.
Of course, the success of this was mostly due to Kael’s paranoia and extensive planning, added with the lack of combat ability for the fortune lion king.
Yes, he was a tier 7, but that was nothing compared to the vast arkships.
And all Kael had to do to command this power was label him as a sinner.
Kael, a tier 5 entity, now posed a direct threat to a tier 7 lion without even being forced to fight directly.
This was a result of all the foundations he had set in place with the lion system.
Kael never planned to kill a tier 7 lion like this when he created those features, he didn’t even know of the Coalitions when he continuously added upgrades to the system.
But he had expected to one day be faced with a problem that his individual power would not be able to solve, hence, he built the system with the desire to gain power.
It was that power which he slowly accounted for all these years hid that was now being fruitful.
"Father, I don’t understand what’s happening," Ozia said as he and his father appeared in the command chamber of this arkship.
Kael looked around, noticing the difference between this arkship and the one designed by Noel.
This arkship was really plain and all the defense systems were the most basic models. Still, it was a gift.
Kael planned on adding his own modifications to it in the future, ones that would fit him.
In the meantime, he did not forget the lion that gave it to him. He remembered his name, even though he wasn’t exactly planning on paying back.
Hearing Ozia’s question, Kael smiled slightly, "What don’t you understand?" He asked.
He walked over to the pillow throne at the center of the room and sat down comfortably.
Hard-light holographic illusory images appeared all around the command chamber, illuminating the dark space and the faces of the father and son.
The holographic images showed King Vander fleeing on his island, chased by Exalon and other arkships.
"What is the end to all this? I don’t understand exactly what you want to achieve." Ozia said.
He was saying what was on his mind. He knew that his father was never one to have just one simple goal when it came to this type of thing.
On the surface, Kael’s goal was probably to just annex or disband the string of fate coalition to prevent them from interfering in any of his plans.
But Kael probably had more objectives under his sleeve. One could tell by how he dragged out the conversation with King Vander even though it was unnecessary.
The father Ozia knew wouldn’t have wasted time with that talk. It wasn’t until King Vander made that blunder did Kael finally saw no reason to talk anymore, categorizing Vander as dead meat.
Why did he wait so long to send out that rocket?
And the lion kings had been waiting for a label too. They could have attacked if they considered anyone a heretic or acclaimed sinner as Kael called them, but they might not have received the reward.
If not for Kael’s timely system update, they would have probably gone on a killing spree that would be similar to what happened during the time of Jin the Purger.
"Do you know why I brought you out to see with me?" Kael asked, looking away from the holographic screen and setting his golden gaze on his son.
His mind was split into the present and the operation of the lion system.
He could see that the sinner recognition model was working well, hundreds of ’Sinners’ were being identified by the minute.
"To gain experience?" Ozia asked, gradually looking away so as not to maintain eye contact with Kael.
"Partially true," Kael said, "I also brought you out to analyze with me.
You are ambitious, I can sense it. Thankfully, your ambition is aligned with what I want for you."
Ozia swallowed his saliva, calming his heart.
So his father found out. It was expected.
With Isabel gone, Ozia felt lonely. N’bayé treated him like a nonentity and Kael never showed any fatherly love.
Kael couldn’t give what he didn’t have.
With Isabel’s betrayal, Ozia was left all alone. No one to love him but himself.
The gap in his fragile and still recovering heart had to be replaced with something. So he replaced it with ambition and pride, a strong desire to prove to himself that he alone was enough.
Kael saw through Ozia cleanly and already intended to complete the mold he had been working on.
"Did you study the factions of the lion civilization?" Kael asked Ozia.
"Yes," Ozia nodded, "The baseline faction system is the clans which are led by the Lion King.
Then there are alliances between two or more Lion Kings, and there are Coalitions which are formed with common goals linked to the civilization as a whole."
"Good, have you checked all the Coalitions?" Kael asked again.
"Yes, there’s the String of Fate Coalition which is the one whose headquarters we are at right now.
We also have the Cosmic Research Coalition, Battle Born Coalition, Shadow Tyranny Coalition, Sovereign Commerce, and our Primordial Supporters Coalition which is just newly forming.
The Anti-Primordial Coalition is just newly forming too.
There are a few alliances that are trying to break out into their own Coalition like the Highest Queens Coalition which is not a real coalition but actually just a combination of a lot of alliances that recruit only Lion Queens.
That is all I know," Ozia said.
Kael nodded, that was exactly how it was for the current state of affairs of the decentralized lion civilization.
"That missile that we launched, who do you think would be most interested in how it works?" Kael asked.
Ozia’s eyes widened, "The Cosmic Research Coalition!" He exclaimed.
Among the lion kings with Kael currently, very few were part of the Cosmic Research Coalition.
But enough of them would have seen the anti-power rocket and would probably report it back to the rest of their members.
Kael had killed two birds with one stone here. He had temporarily weakened the power of the String of Fate Coalition and also projected a form of intellectual value to those who could see it.
Why stop at one coalition when he could have another?
But Kael’s scheme had not stopped there.
By commanding enough force to pose a threat to a tier 7, all the others would be uncomfortable wherever they were hiding.
Ever since the conflict between the Anti-Primordial ls and the Primordial Supporters, all the tier 7 lions and lionesses had been mostly neutral.
Vander had broken stance because Kael had beguiled him.
Kael wanted to see them, he wanted to force out the true terrifying powerhouse of the lion races.
And he also wanted to find Ma’abu’s mentor.
King Vander was not safe, he might very well die soon.
However, just because Kael could be a threat to Vander didn’t mean it would be the same.
He doubted if another tier 7, someone like Exalon would even be moved. Arkships were strong but a powerful tier 7 Magus could dismantle them within seconds if they knew what they were doing.
With a little push from Kael, Ozia’s intelligence kicked in. He started to see things from the perspective of others and to understand their categories.
He started asking the right question. Who was looking, who lost power, who was shamed, who wasn’t.
Slowly, he was able to unravel the extent of Kael’s schemes.
He looked at Kael again, feeling like his father had a deep dark mind that couldn’t be understood by normal standards.
If some of Kael’s plans succeeded, it would create enough cover, just enough to reduce his fear for Ibadon and the dragons and do some terrible things that usually weren’t allowed.
Ozia was very eager to find out where his father was leading them and what desired future he had envisioned for all of them.
So many things to look forward too. Ozia could already imagine what it would be like if they finally succeeded in spreading the whole lion system to rest for the slower model.
"Oh, she’s here," Kael muttered indifferently, reading a chat that just got sent to him by Alora.