THE GOD EATER

Chapter 1321: Rising Temptation.

He had also promised that if Loki didn’t swear the oath, he would tell everyone that his hidden pathway was the Time Pathway and that he could attack anyone with a curse through their disciples.

But omitted those promises in his oaths now. It was intentional.

After missing that chunk of his promise, he waited for Loki to remember and say, "What about the other things you said you would tell people about me? Why didn’t you swear not to tell now?"

And he would say, "Aha! I’ve got you. I knew that those things mattered to you."

It would be evidence that Loki had a Time Pathway and could curse people through their disciples. Unfortunately, Loki didn’t take the bait.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want Wandering Thief to make those promises. If there was no risk of exposing himself, he might have insisted that Wandering Thief include the oath of confidentiality.

But he knew any promises the two of them made were non-binding, so he didn’t bother taking the risk. In fact, he didn’t take the oath he just made seriously either.

It had been less than a second since the oath was made, but he was already thinking about how to break it.

’Should I continue attacking them or not? If I don’t, it might prove that I am related to the attack in one way or another. Plus, I really want to attack and kill all of them.’

’But if I continue to attack them, the fact that I’m behind the attack might be exposed. If those nosy Gemini caretakers are watching, they might catch on to me too.’

’Ah! I’m so conflicted,’ he thought, feeling anguished.

In the end, he concluded that if he attacked them, it would have to be worth the risk. That is, there had to be tangible benefits to killing them, not just the pleasure of it.

Secondly, he decided that his next attack should end them all once and for all to make it meaningful.

’I should use something like the Seal of Death with the Rewind Metac to kill their past too so that even if time is reversed, they will be dead for good.’

’Either I do that, or I take down Time Traveler for good so that they lose their ability to reverse time. Anyway, the attack has to be meaningful, or I won’t do it," he thought, determined.

After making up his mind, he said to Wandering Thief, "So when do I get to meet my new subordinates?"

Even as he asked, his mind was already putting two and two together for a fun surprise when they met.

Wandering Thief replied, "We will meet when we come to join the Olympic Court."

"In the meantime, we would like to get in with other parts of our partnership. Specifically, I was hoping you would help me with expanding my Domain."

"No problem. Pick any world you want. I’ll speak to the Will of the World to allow you to join," Loki said magnanimously.

"That’s good to hear. It means a lot to me more than you know," Wandering Thief said gratefully.

Loki graciously said, "Don’t mention it. Your strength is my strength, so helping you become stronger is helping myself."

"Speaking of helping my subordinates, what about your brothers? When will they expand their Domains?"

Wandering Thief smiled and said, "Very soon, actually."

"They will be ready to expand their Domains very soon. We’re just busy ironing out some kinks with them before they are ready."

Loki was only partially listening because Nameless Fool had begun to recruit mortals for his sect.

Nameless Fool didn’t descend with an avatar to coax or bully mortals into joining his sect, as Loki did. He also didn’t send an envoy to act as a salesman, show off his sect’s advantages, and convince mortals to join like the Gemini younglings.

Instead, Nameless Fool used the random luck method. He created Core Metacs of the Luck Pathway with his Supreme Metac and scattered them throughout Thief Haven for lucky mortals to chance upon and use.

When Loki saw this, he sneered, thinking, ’This is bait, right?’

’I just swore that oath. If I kidnap or kill a mortal or take a Core Metac now, only for Nameless Fool to be attacked, it would be proof that I was behind the previous attacks and evidence that I can break oaths.’

’You know what? I am better than this. I’ll just ignore them.’

So he didn’t do anything about the Luck Pathway. He also did nothing about the Illusion Pathway after Wandering Thief exposed it.

But Wandering Thief explained to him, saying, "Since I now have the protection of the strongest Dao Lord in the Sea of Worlds, I feel confident enough to reveal my hidden pathway. With the strongest Dao Lord on my side, I have no reason to be afraid."

Loki also played along and said, "Of course you’re right."

But no matter how Wandering Thief acted as if the matter was reasonable, Loki noticed that War Mongerer or Time Traveler didn’t expose any of their pathways.

To him, their unwillingness to expose War Mongerer to a possible attack implied caution. Clearly, they didn’t dare risk their greatest tool, even though they claimed they had nothing to fear now that they were working for him.

However, as determined as he was not to be baited, his enemies were equally motivated to bait him. In just an hour of getting nothing, they uped the ante.

Nameless Fool created Core Metacs for the Name Pathway and released them throughout the world. Then the three brothers kept watch over every Core Metac like vultures watching dying prey.

The temptation to attack had reached its peak for Loki because he didn’t have the Name Pathway, so there was something to gain from the attack. Plus, with both pathways exposed like this, he had the opportunity to eliminate Nameless Fool once and for all.

But he still didn’t act. In fact, he seemed to become calmer now that the stakes were so high.