Chapter 686 - 686: Nightmare

"Ah, wait. Did I not go to the academy in this timeline? I might not have the memories of the new timeline. That would explain why we're being attacked," he muttered, rubbing his chin.

"Kellian, how did my parents die? Tell me." 

"They died in the dungeon. They were poisoned by their enemies when you were five," Kellian replied. 

"So nothing changed... How...?" 

"Lucifer!" A loud voice came from the other end of the wall. 

Lucifer removed the lightning wall. 

"Hmm? You remember me?" he asked. "So there was truly no change in this timeline. This is confusing."

"Dean Xaen? You're here too?"

Xaen's face twitched unwillingly, but he tried to control his emotions. 

"Ah, yes. Cassius asked me to come to save you. Something had happened to you, and I was here to bring you back, but Kellian wanted you to stay in the coma so he could enjoy the position of the leader," Xaen replied.

"He took you away. I was helping Cassius bring you back," he continued. "You should really stay away from Kellian. He might backstab you any second!"

"Kellian?" Lucifer turned to Kellian. "Tell me the truth."

Kellian also told his side of the story, mentioning all the red flags. 

"He is lying. You can see through his lies easily, can't you? You know you can't trust him!" Xaen said. 

Lucifer observed the facial expressions of Kellian. 

"I can never trust anyone; you are right." Lucifer nodded. "But I trust Kellian more than you."

"And even if he wasn't lying, removing all my abilities? Am I supposed to be happy?" he asked, frowning. 

He felt something off though. He started patting his pockets, growing stunned. All two portal stones that he had collected were missing.

"Where are the stones?" he asked Xaen. 

"I don't know what you're talking about. But I think you're not going to believe me in the condition you are in right now. I'll come later." After waving his hand, Xaen opened a Portal before him to get out of this place. 

"You aren't going anywhere," Lucifer said in a calm voice. Now that he had his newfound ability, he was prepared to stop time. 

He cast his time domain around him, stopping everyone, but for some reason, Xaen was still able to move. He kept waving his hand as he stepped inside the portal; another portal appeared under Cassius, swallowing him. 

Both the portals closed.

Lucifer removed his Time Domain. "This wasn't effective on him... But it worked on others. Why didn't it work on him?"

"He... I am sure he took the stones! He... He shouldn't have... I didn't want things to go this way, but if they must, then they must."

"Thank you for trusting me," Kellian thanked Lucifer. "And I'm sorry I couldn't protect the stones. I didn't know he took them."

"You don't have to thank me for trusting you. You already told me where you were and why you went to the island over the call."

" That was when you didn't even know what was going to happen and that Xaen was going to come here. It's no rocket science to see who was telling the truth."

"But Xaen... He will regret trying to plot against me. I didn't want to step foot on the island until the end, but he forced my hand." Lucifer brought his glasses out of his pocket and wore them.

"Locate the Warlock Council headquarters and give me the shortest path to get there," he commanded. 

A small map opened on his glasses which showed the way he needed to follow. 

"We are going back for now." He starts flying back with Kellian, who turned into a shadow eagle. 

On the way back, he kept thinking how Xaen was unaffected by his time stop ability. That didn't make sense unless he had something like Energy Negation which he always kept active.

"He knew I had the ability of time that I absorbed. It won't surprise me if he has energy negation which he cast as soon as he saw me to stay safe," he said, talking to himself on the way back. 

"But if that's the case, killing or even catching him would be very difficult. It could also be that he used something else? The academy is pretty advanced in technology."

"It might also be his Spatial Control which helped him stay out of my time control since he could've kept his body in a different space, like Temporal Displacement. I've seen something like that in the past," Kellian suggested. 

"In the Delta Squad vice captain of APF?" Lucifer asked. He also remembered a person like that once. "To avoid the attacks, he temporarily shifted his body in a parallel space. He was visible and everything, but in reality, his body was in a different space. 

"Exactly." Kellian nodded. 

"That does make sense too. There are just too many variables. We might need to stay alert in the next few days since he might try to attack us," Lucifer reminded Kellian. "Take all the precautions. The number of enemies we have isn't low."

"I don't understand one thing though. Can you answer?" Kellian asked. 

"What thing?" 

"He just wanted to take away all your abilities, but he didn't want to kill you. Why? He said something about an old man he was concerned about. Can this be something we can use?" Kellian asked. 

"Old man?" Lucifer frowned. "I don't know any old man who can scare Xaen or help us. He was probably bluffing to make you trust him. 

...

In the continent of Triton, there existed a small nation of Elisia. The nation was smaller compared to the other nations in Triton, but it had quite a lot of influence, all because it had two people who were part of the Warlock Council leadership. 

Both the people belonged to the same family, making the family one of the most influential in Triton. 

It was the Asade family, which had a really big estate in the capital of Elisia, which didn't look any less than a Royal Palace. 

A blonde-haired man was sleeping on the bed. He appeared to be in his early thirties, at least based on his looks. 

The man was sweating heavily as he turned left and right in sleep. 

"Argh!" After a long time, he woke up screaming. 

The lights of his room were turned on, and a man stepped inside the room. 

"Sir, are you alright?" the man asked. "Another one of those nightmares?"

The blonde man nodded. 

The butler placed a glass on the table, mixing some medicine. 

"Sir, it has been thirty-one years since that incident... But still, the nightmare haunts you."

The blonde man drank the glass of water, controlling his heavy breathing.