Raijin won't be a problem for him at that point because not only would he be a true god, he would also be a god king. No matter how powerful Raijin is, he would still only be a demigod. There is no way he won't be able to defeat Raijin then.
So Icon isn't willing to ally with Kelvin and won't let Kelvin threaten him into submission.
Instead, he sneered when he saw the message. Then he proceeded to use the message to gather more information about Kelvin in order to narrow down his position.
He chuckled inwardly as one of his tracking puppets began scanning the message and the environment while saying to himself, "I must admit that this might have worked on me in the past when I was foolish. But now I know that if you want to achieve something great, you must be willing to do anything and sacrifice everything for it."
He can still remember that moment when he became the first demigod and reached the 100th floor of the Tower of Destiny. He met the other god kings of the Yggdrasil civilization then and was offered the chance to become one of them.
But he refused to accept that power. Instead he gave it all up and even scattered the pieces of that power to the ends of the earth because he felt guilty about not sacrificing his life and the lives of those who helped him in order to sever Earth-11 from Yggdrasil.
The god kings had called him a fool then. He has to agree with them because only a fool would feel guilty about not sacrificing his life to help others.
Not only did he feel foolish for feeling guilty, but he also gave up the power of a god king because of his guilt.
His foolish actions made it difficult for him to acquire the other rings when he needed the power of God kings. So he had to give up his life after the death of his loved ones in order to get the revenge he wanted.
That same thing he didn't want to do in order to remove Earth-11 from Yggdrasil still happened. His loved ones died. He lost his supporters, and finally he became desperate enough to sacrifice his own life for revenge.
All of the pain and destruction that happened could have been avoided if he had just sacrificed his life to sever Earth-11 from Yggdrasil. He surely wouldn't be in this situation if he had disregarded his guilt and the opinion of others and proceeded to take on the mantle of god king.
But he wasn't willing to sacrifice or do everything possible back then. Fortunately, it is not too late for him.
He has a second chance now. He won't give it up for anything. He has learned his lesson at a great cost. It is not a lesson he will ever forget.
—-
Kelvin was hoping that Icon would take his deal, but he wasn't counting on it. He already knows that the only thing he can count on is his personal. The deal is just a delaying tactic he deployed to use to slow Icon down.
In his attempt to increase his personal strength, he went looking for Havoc. He wanted to acquire the man's mechanical manipulation ability for his seventh slot.
But as soon as he got within 10 kilometers of Havoc, danger arrived. A quagmire appeared around him while a box shimmered into existence around him.
The quagmire appeared to be made out of wind. It was invisible, but it shackled him like chains.
This quagmire is an ability belonging to the Null class. It slowed Kelvin down, weakened him, and also nullified his abilities.
The box around him is transparent like glass. It sealed space around him, which stopped him from leaving this position.
He couldn't teleport. or leave with his legs. Unless he could break the box, he wouldn't be able to escape.
Unfortunately, the box is very strong. He has also been weakened by the quagmire, so there is practically no hope of escaping.
This is the trap that Icon had laid for him. It would activate as soon as Kelvin triggers the monitoring abilities that he had placed around some of the targets that he knows Kelvin would visit.
Icon arrived a second after the trap was activated. He appeared on top of the box.
When he appeared, Kelvin was already gone. He couldn't see him in the box or sense Kelvin's existence at all.
But Icon didn't believe that he was gone. He sneered and said, "Unless you're a demigod, you can never escape from this trap."
He refused to be fooled, so he kept the box sealed while examining it inch by inch.
But the more he searched, the more frustrated he became.
By the time he had searched the box four times, he couldn't hold back his anger and frustration.
He roared in frustration. His roar and the commotion the trap caused drew a lot of attention. Heroes were already on their way to deal with him.
Icon had to leave so as not to draw attention.
He already knows that he is treading on thin ice by entering cities because every city is owned by a demigod. By entering cities, he risks being discovered by the demigod below the city and being hunted.
If he is discovered, things will become very difficult for him. He might even die. So he escaped as soon as possible.
After he left, someone appeared where he had been.
This person was invisible to everyone else. They floated in the air right beside where Icon had appeared.
The person looked around and sniffed. After a while, their eyes lit up in recognition.
"Isn't this Icon?"
Then the person laughed. "I knew I sensed an old friend. Who would have thought that he wasn't dead yet?"
"This is big news. I should catch up to him and have a good chat with him for old times sake."
The person's voice was pleasant, but their eyes were cold. Their eyes were chilling to behold. A mortal that looked into their eyes would freeze.
The coldness of this person's eyes is not a natural phenomenon. Their eyes are cold because they are very angry.
This person is very angry with Icon. If they find him, she won't be chatting with him. At least, not immediately when they meet.
The first thing they plan to do when they meet Icon is to beat him up. Maybe after they have incapacitated him and bound him for eternal torture, they will ask him why he betrayed Earth-11 by not severing it from Yggdrasil.
These are things that this person is very eager to do. So they began looking for traces of Icon in hopes that they would have a wonderful reunion with him.
Meanwhile, Kelvin was in the core of the world.
His heart was thumping in fear. He beat his chest several times to calm it down, but it didn't listen to him.
It is because he had nearly died. When he sensed that danger, it was already too late.
But the trap wasn't the main issue. The trap wasn't deadly at all. The main danger was Icon.
He didn't know how Icon found him or how Icon trapped him, and he is not even sure that Icon was responsible for the trap, but he knew for sure that he would have died if he continued to stay in that trap.
He can still remember that experience. He felt weak and helpless.
His strength had deserted him, and his abilities couldn't be used. Even his ability to swap with his shadows has gone dark.
It brought back some bad memories of when he was a hungry boy being trained by the Patriarch. Those periods of time were when he felt so weak, confined, and helpless.
They are not feeling that he cherishes and would like to relive. If he hadn't overcome his panic to visualize the tower of destiny, he would have died.
He shook his head and said, "I am never leaving this place. If he can find me here, then I'll just give up."
Not only does he not want to experience that debilitating feeling ever again, but he doesn't want to die. So he promised himself never to leave his sanctuary.
It is an exaggeration. because he will still leave occasionally, but the bulk of his time will be spent here, where Icon can't get to him.
While he was hiding, news began to spread in secret and powerful places that Icon was still alive. It is still a baseless rumor because no one has seen him.
Icon should be dead after he was incinerated with nuclear weapons. But no one could calm down after hearing this rumor because Icon is so iconic.
Icon had a lot of tricks up his sleeves, which helped him become the first demigod of Earth-11, where many others had failed. So this rumor was enough for people to start looking around for him.