His expression flickered for a second, just long enough for Kimat to notice it had changed, but not to register that it had changed to barely controlled contempt, though his own voice dropped to a soft purr, but clearly audible. "By avoiding all responsibilities? Your sister is stronger than you."<br/><br/>He smiled at his son, one his opponents knew well, and switched to the perfectly precise language Kimat had used earlier. "I did not abandon anything. I died thanks to Ve'len being a smartass and paralyzing me in front of Verdelets attack, so she could kill me. This would have been a very bad thing, except Ve'len had already set up... something, I still do not know what or how, that caught my soul, and began rebuilding my body, better than before. Unfortunately, it didn't know about the strength of bindings using blood, which Verdelet used to amplify her portal intended to bring manifested, naturalized beyonders in. From the second I had enough matter to stop her, to the point I stepped through the collapsing super portal, I had exactly 161 seconds. During this time, I had to protect Amaterasu and Inari, kill Verdelet, evacuate my forces from the tower, and unmake the portal. I needed a total of 1677 seconds, or nearly twenty eight minutes, just to deal with the portal and the blood binding that complicated everything, let alone the other three issues.<br/><br/>I suppose I could have simply killed myself again to avoid the problem all together, but that would have sucked my soul out into beyonder space, and that would be a somewhat bad thing."<br/><br/>He stepped forward, getting right in front of him, and dropped his voice another octave. "So, please, tell me how I was supposed to do better considering my plans never accounted for the apparent betrayal of Ve'len?"