Reaper of the Martial World

Book 4: Chapter 81: Loki

Within Arena City, the battle of the Pakals and Ragnors was still raging. Many Elvin Sub-families had joined into the fray, leaving the defence against the other attacking Planet to the main branch families.

At this point, the arena itself no longer held a semblance to a stadium. The seats and skyboxes that once held citizens and the highest officials of the universe were in ruins, the fighting itself had crashed through and entered the once barren streets, and neutral citizens could only helplessly flee or hide, trying to avoid the destruction.

To most, the outcome of this war didn’t matter to them. They had no investment either way. Whether the Ragnors or the Belmonts ruled, they would still remain at the bottom of the martial food chain. Knowing this, why would they put their lives on the line?

The Sapientia, in keeping with their neutral and peacemaking motto, worked under the command of a shaken Connery Sapientia to help evacuate the citizens. As part of maintaining their outward image to the world, this was a necessary part of Connery’s job as their leader.

“Ipsum. Enough people have died.” The Patriarch of the Saeclum clan spoke impatiently. His partner in crime had supposedly said she would do her job, but hours had passed without a single change.

“This can only be done once. If it gets shot down too quickly, it’ll be us who pay for it in the end because you won’t have the support of me and my sisters anymore. Can you bear that, with your weak constitutions?” Matriarch Ipsum barked back.

If anyone familiar with the Ipsum and Saeclum clans saw these two leaders barking at each other, they would only sigh and turn their attention elsewhere. It wasn’t rare for this to occur between them, for the simple fact that their clans were really one in the same!

The Ipsum clan was made entirely of females. The Saeclum clan was made entirely of males. Both clans shared outstanding soul talent. This made the Saeclums best suited to utilizing the Elvin foresight technique, while the Ipsums were highly suited to learning their artificial red crystal will. The only reason they were separated as they were was by design of the Ragnors. They liked to maintain the strictest order amongst their subordinates…

The Ipsums and Saeclums weren’t allowed to marry. However, they were constantly cross bred… As though they were animals.

This was simply the way of the Ragnors. Exploitation. Manipulation. Abuse.

However, the Ipsums and Saeclums had no choice… And, for that matter, neither did any of the other auxiliary clans under the command of the main Ragnor Emperor God Clan. For the same reason Thor could never hope to escape, they were forever tied to the that evil family.

Patriarch Saeclum took exception to Matriarch Ipsum’s provocations, but he couldn’t help but admit that she was correct.

“Hmph,” Matriarch Ipsum looked away, satisfied with the silent response of acceptance she received. But, she immediately did something that made Patriarch Saeclum’s lip twitch. “Let’s go Ipsum pillars.”

Ten elderly women disappeared from their location.

‘Tch,’ Patriarch Saeclum nearly rolled his eyes.

The battle raged onward, completely oblivious to the shifting plans of the Ragnor auxiliary clans.

Unlike wars led by Dyon, wars of the martial world were strikingly different, especially ones that start almost spontaneously like this one.

Caedlum’s eldest brother had taken the commanding position, but in terms of orders, he rarely gave any out. He led by example, storming through the sea of blond hair, blue eyes, and endless lightning with his reddened fists.

He had lost count for the amount of Ragnors that had fallen under his fists, but he was intent on making his way to Thor and Vidar – both of whom were running nearly unmatched.

They were both surrounded by tens of saint level guards which allowed them to weed through to competition they could face. However, all of the Pakals knew how large of a blow it would be for them to take out two faith seeded members of the Ragnors.

Everyone knew that there was a massive taboo against stealing faith seeds. In fact, taking a Ragnor faith seed was little more than a death sentence to many – even if you were a part of the Ragnors. This was because the Ragnor had long since used special methods to control those who inherited these faith seeds… This was why despite being a sadist among sadists, Loki Ragnor never thought of stealing his son’s nor Thor’s faith seeds.

However, what everyone also knew was that there was a method to cripple a faith seed, causing it to take much longer to reincarnate as compared to the usual. If a faith seed was shattered before it could dissipate, it would take time to reform in the stream of reincarnation before it could be birthed along with the next genius.

That was the goal of Ire Pakal, Caedlum’s eldest brother. If he could shatter both Vidar’s and Thor’s faith seeds, he would completely take out the number three and four most powerful faith seeds in Ragnor history! It could take upwards of hundreds of thousands of years for them to manifest again. By then, the Pakals could take advantage of the power swing.

The main Ragnor branch would normally never allow so many faith seeds to be away and in one location like this. Unfortunately for them, as fate would have it, both Vidar and Thor were born here.

Ire’s eyes glowed a savage red as his muscles rippled. His every step left deep dents in the once sturdy stadium floor, and his strong back caused the warriors in his charge to roar with respect and increased morale.

However, before Ire could even make it to his goal, a blinding red light covered the skies, blossoming with it a complex red formation.

At each of its ten corners, stood a cloaked Ipsum elder, channeling their everything into this one moment.

The battles all seemed to freeze as everyone held their breath… Just what was going to happen?…

Ire’s frown deepened. He hated how unprepared they were for everything. This should have been a war that they were constantly preparing for, and yet the Ragnors attacked at the most inopportune time.

The truth was that had the Ragnors gone through with their initial plan of waiting in ambush at the Belmont Holy Lands, they would have had far less success than what they had now. There were simply too many things for the Belmonts and their allies to handle now.

The blinding red light only seemed to increase with intensity. Those who were conscious of what was going on began to feel an odd pulling force on their blood. It was more of an irritant, and was easily fought off, but it left many of them with an uneasy feeling…

And then, it happened…

Pillars of red light beamed downward from the formation. A panicked cry came out from the allied forces as they tried to fight these beams off, but they suddenly noticed that they weren’t being attacked at all!

Every single of the thousands of beams that from the sky… Landed directly onto a corpse!

Confusion colored the faces of those around. However, the pointed response by the Ragnors to the situation let everyone know that the situation wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

Array plate after array plate was crushed. In an instant, tens of thousands of Ragnors were perfectly coated in a thin sheet of red aura that smelt faintly of blood.

The hairs on Ire’s neck stood up as an ill premonition flashed through his mind. “RETREAT!” He roared at the top of his lungs, using his saint energy to project his voice as far as it would go.

However, why would the Ragnors allow such a thing to happen so easily? If the Pakals turned their backs to them, they would simply slaughter them in pursuit!

The Pakals fell into chaos. Half wanted to follow the orders of their young master, but the other half couldn’t understand the need for it. They didn’t have the senses of Ire, and they let their anger get the best of them when they noticed the Ragnors shamefully attacking their backs with large smirks on their faces.

How could Ire not know that this would happen? Of course, he understood, but he also knew that he had no choice! And the next moments, would prove him exactly right…

There were few more familiar with the Ipsum family will than Dyon, and he had described it as nothing more than a blood sucking leach…

When the Ipsum family crystal will evolved to an intent, it would reach the artificial supreme law levels in power… It was one of the many experimentations of the Ragnor family, and one of the very few that actually succeeded…

However, what few knew or understood was that the red crystals weren’t just a will… They weren’t an inanimate object left to be manipulated by martial artists… No… They were born of blood sacrifice. They were organisms that could never be satiated… They were always hungry…

This was why the Ipsum family could never afford to master more than a single will. It wasn’t that they were less talented. In fact, they were likely among the most talented for having succeeded in mastering this malevolent crystal will to begin with. It was that if they didn’t focus their entire being – their absolute everything – into controlling this will… They would be devoured…

The beams of red light increased in intensity as they began to bore into the dead… Grotesque squirms of their skin and boils filled with blood seemed to bubble the corpses to life.

Soon, fallen allies, both Pakal, Ragnor, and Elvin, began to rise up.

There was no intelligence in their eyes… In fact, all anyone saw was an endless abyss of darkness that over-split with crimson waters…

The once dead, and now undead, stood awkwardly to their feet, some falling over in their first attempt before having to try again…

When Ire saw that the Ragnors were using their fallen comrades, his anger boiled as his the pain in his chest threatened to tear in heart from his chest. How long had he hated the Ragnors and their despicable means? How long had he watched them continuously ignore the line was common human decency to step into another level of abyssal hell? And now he was watching it unfold, yet again, before his very eyes…

His anger told him to charge forward. To put everything on the line to kill them all once and for all… But, his rationality told him that this just didn’t make sense… He knew that it wasn’t smart to attack.

Gritting his teeth, Ire repeated his order. “Retreat!”

However, just how many Pakals would listen? Seeing their friends and family, those they had just mourned the loss of, rise up to be used by a scumbag family… How could they stand for this?

Many lost their heads, charging blindly in a fit of rage.

There was nothing Ire could do. Without his father here, there was no one of absolute authority. Maybe if the martial world was more organizes, maybe if they were more prepared, they could have avoided all of this…

The Pakals who lost themselves in rage relentlessly pushed forward, hacking down and punching through every Ragnor they found… But… That only lasted until they finally ran into the first line of undead…

All it took was a simple grip… And then two… And then three…

Screams of horror and agony rang out from Pakals who drowned under the embrace of their undead family…

The blood leeching will spread, digging into the scream of the screaming Pakals and tunneling its way to their souls….

Just like what happened to Dyon, everything slowed down for them… They couldn’t use their wills… they couldn’t speak… they couldn’t see… Soon… Everything was dark… And then… They were dead…

Within the Belmont Holy Land, the battle of the demon generals and the Daiyu was going slowly, but steadily.

River and Ronica continued to defend the cave’s mouth with Ri to their back, having tied down both Lionel and Evelyn. All while the demon generals continued to pincer the desperate Daiyu from the other side.

The demon generals were outnumbered almost ten to one, but their talent and coordination was so far superior that the Daiyu could hardly take advantage of their number difference. This was, of course, because of a tactic Dyon had implemented specifically for non-gate battles.

A major problem found in martial world battles had to do with the proper matching of forces. Often times, those of lower cultivation would be forced to charge in first before those with greater contribution and cultivation came in later. However, this was only feasible for the beginning of the battle. By end game, or even sooner in cases of spontaneous battles like this one, the cultivations of the warriors would mix heavily.

Sometimes, those of higher cultivation wouldn’t bother with those beneath them, keeping with an unspoken moral code. However, the number of shameless individuals in the martial world was on full display for everyone to see – there was no question that for every noble warrior, there would be three or more scum.

This would obviously be a problem for many armies and would also result in situations where man power would have to be diverted in order to ensure that promising geniuses weren’t killed before they had time to develop.

In order to solve this problem, Dyon implemented a simple but effective formation. It allowed essence gathering and saint level experts to seamlessly switch battle positions depending on the concentration of experts. This shift would, of course, be manned by the vice commanders.

The army itself was split into five, ten- and hundred-man teams. However, the ratios of experts were expertly balanced using 3:2 ratios. This allowed for either a saint heavy, or essence gathering heavy unit. Each Vice Commander would be aware of what ratio they were responsible for and would thus coordinate to shift the formation according to needs.

In this way, essence gathering experts would never be left exposed to overwhelming odds, and neither would saints divert their power to opponents who were too weak for them, thereby wasting their potential impact on the battle field.

This was known as the Checkered Formation Variation 4: Efficiency.

Within the cave, Ri turned her attention from Lionel and Evelyn. She was much too tempted to try and make use of Lionel to find Dyon, so she had to distract herself. There was no need for her to personally watch Lionel considering he was being monitored by a demon general.

Ri’s eyes flashed with a dense black as she slowly formed the most basic weapon’s hell arrays. Sitting cross legged and focusing her senses, they began to manifest at the top of the cave entrance.

Although it was be foolish for her to enter the battle personally, what she could do was cause chaos within the ranks of the Daiyu. Right now they were pincered between the demon general army and the cave entrance, so, Ri had many targets to play with.

The arrays began to slowly spin. As an array that required a lower third stage soul, it was tough for Ri to form them. In fact, she could only sustain two at a time. But, that was enough because Ri had her void will!

River and Ronica smiled as they noticed the arrays appear above them in support and their grins only got wider when the spears of darkness were finally unleashed.

They seemed teleport through the air at blinding speeds, jumping into and out of the void as it crashed into a large cluster of Daiyu.

Cries of pain and agitation rang outward, but Ri paid them no mind as she slowly geared up another.

Loud booms resounded through the Daiyu army. By the time they noticed what was causing it all and tried to destroy the arrays, they also noticed that River and Ronica wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen so easily.

However, a good thing couldn’t never last forever. With Ri’s poor soul talent and strength, after she launched her tenth spear, she was already beginning to feel great fatigue…

But, that was when she felt a delicate hand touch her shoulder, infusing her with the added strength she needed. When Ri noticed it was the shy Kaeda that was helping her, she couldn’t help but smile. Dyon had told her that had it not been for Kaeda’s soul talent, he might have missed the World Tournament entirely.

Just when Ri was about to turn her attention back to the battle, her ring shimmered and Madeleine suddenly appeared by her side.

“Madeleine?” Ri’s brows furrowed, “You’re still fatigued. You’ve done enough, go rest.” Ri said sternly.

Although few knew, Ri was right there when it happened. Had it not been for Madeleine’s celestial intent, Dyon’s struggle might have been for nothing. It was no wonder she was tired, she had literally brought their husband back from the brink of death.

Madeleine looked around and sighed when she noticed Lionel being tied up. She shook her head and sat right next to Ri, grasping onto her hand. She was tired, but she couldn’t rest knowing everyone was fighting on without her…

Light purple flames began to dance along her skin, melding together with Ri’s.

Ri felt Madeleine’s soul intertwine with her own, and she felt her shiver when she realized the amount of pain Dyon was in right now. There was nothing Ri could do at that point. After Madeleine realized how hard their husband was struggling, she would never be able to rest easy.

Madeleine’s flames blazed with more fervor, but they weren’t hot like the fire phoenix’s domineering flames, nor were they cold like the elegance of the ice phoenix flames… They were just comfortable, and filled Ri with an endless warmth.

There was no questioning Madeleine’s soul talent. As one of the very few capable of mastering music will, there was no doubt that she had an advantage in this category. But, when Ri felt the effect she had on her, her eyes couldn’t help but widen.

The weapon’s hell arrays in the sky multiplied… 

Two became four… Then four became eight… Then eight became sixteen…

In the end, almost 50 furiously rotating arrays appeared in the skies coated with gentle purple flames and dark void will.

And together, they rained chaos down upon the Daiyu.

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?