Chapter 684 - 684: Trapped

"Give him back. You have no place to run. And as you said, you're much weaker than your usual self. There won't be any backup coming for you. If you want to live, give the kid back. Or I'll be forced to walk the extra mile," Xaen warned Kellian. 

"If you think I'll betray my organization for fear of death, then you're wrong. Uprising is my family that saved me when I needed it the most! Lucifer is part of the same family. What kind of family gives up their family member to save their own skin," Kellian retorted. 

He turned to Kellian. "Cassius, I'm not disappointed in what he's doing. But you... You disappointed me a lot by siding with him."

After finishing, Kellian raised his hand, shooting shadow projectiles all around him.

"You think this will work?" Xaen asked, smiling. 

He cast a portal before the projectiles that were aiming at him, sending them to a different place. 

"Anything else?" 

While Xaen faced Kellian, he didn't know that he had unknowingly helped Kellian. 

One of the projectiles that Kellian had sent towards Xaen was the real him. He just left a shadow clone behind him. He had taken a risk, expecting Xaen to use the same move and his risk worked. 

...

He appeared on a distant island, coming to his real form. This place was much better than the desert since it had many trees and enough places to hide. He kept going farther and farther. 

...

In the desert, the shadow clone of Kellian started running away, turning into a shadow eagle. It started flying away. 

"Some work," Xaen reminded Kellian. He snapped his fingers, making a portal appear before the shadow eagle which swallowed it. 

The shadow eagle came out of the portal on the same island where the real Kellian was. In fact, for some strange reason, it appears right before real Kellian. Instead of hitting him, it merged with him. 

Another portal appeared before Kellian and Xaen stepped out. 

"How did you know?" Kellian asked, frowning.n

"You mean what gave you away? Besides your painfully oblivious aura?' Xaen asked. "Most people might not differentiate, but I can see your clones and the real you. The aura is completely different."

"Also, now that it's only the two of us here, I suppose I should tell you the truth."

"You are right. I do want to take away all the abilities of Lucifer, leaving only one. That way, he can't be a threat to anyone."

"I was amazed when Cassius said he needed so many Limiters for Lucifer. I wanted to know why he would need so many, so I asked some people I know to hack your database."

" I honestly didn't expect you would be able to track the hack and know who was behind it. Not bad."

"So it was true. You really saw the plans. And now you want to cripple the Uprising so we can't succeed." Kellian frowned. 

"That's true. I can't let you succeed. The world has finally achieved some semblance of peace after so long. I can't let you destroy that by waging a war on the entire world and opening the portal? I can't let Lucifer succeed," Xaen replied. 

"But Lucifer is the favorite of the old man. I couldn't just kill him, even though it'll be easy for me to do. So I was trying to come up with a plan to succeed without being discovered. Who knew that your people would invite me themselves and give me the opportunity on a Golden Plate."

"So you can heal Lucifer without taking away all his abilities," Kellian asked. 

"Of course, I can. I can already see two cores in his body which appear to be incomplete. I just have to remove the two, and he should wake up, but I want to remove all his abilities instead," Xaen replied, smiling. 

As for the two cores he was talking about, they were the Energy Negation Core and Time core. 

"So, now that you know, what are you going to do? No, a better question. What can you even do? Let's make it more interesting though. I think it would be more fun if Cassius himself kills you."

" After you're dead entirely, everything you keep in your shadow realm should appear on its own. Then no one can save Lucifer's abilities!"

He clapped his hand, making another Portal swallow Kellian, sending him back to the desert. 

Xaen also left right after him.

He appeared beside Cassius. 

"Cassius, I tried to convince him! I did my all, but I don't think he's willing to agree. Moreover, he confessed that he wants Lucifer to be in a vegetative state. He really has fallen, it seems. I don't know why I expected anything better from a Dark Variant."

"He really..." Cassius sighed. 

"He's lying, you idiot! He was the one who confessed to everything I was saying! He can save Lucifer without taking most of his abilities!" Kellian snapped. "He confessed that! He's just playing you! Don't listen to him! He wants Lucifer to be weakened, so he's in no danger!"

"Sigh, you're back to your tactics," Xaen sighed. "Cassius, I don't think he's going to listen to us. The best thing we could do for Lucifer is to kill him.'

"Kill?"

"Yeah. After he is dead, his control would weaken, and Lucifer would come back! You must do it now! Kill him! Your Sword is fast as well as strong enough to kill him! You can do it! Use the entrapment formation!' Xaen said. 

"This is bizarre. He's lying to you, and you're taking him seriously?" Kellian yelled. But he didn't want to stay here either. He knew that Cassius was going to listen to Xaen in the end. 

He split into thousands of shadows, all going in different directions. 

"See? He's running away. This time, I won't stop him. I'll leave everything to you. If you want Lucifer back, kill Kellian. If you don't, let him leave."

"Also, that one there is the true Kellian. Don't blame me for what happens next. Lucifer's life depends on you!"

"I-i must!" Cassius raised his heavy Sword and tapped it three times. He raised the sword in a zigzag motion, which made a formation circle appear on his Sword. 

Slash~

He swung his sword, firing a powerful red arc of destructive energy. That attack wasn't alone. It was accompanied by an energy field that trapped real Kellian from all sides. 

The stronger Kellian might have a way to escape, but as he was right now, he couldn't leave the barrier. 

The powerful attack reached him.