'Damn it!' Lothur felt his consciousness failing as his sights darkened.
He looked at Viktoria and Elke, who were scared to death as they also tried to attack in the direction of those cracks in the first formation above them.
But they were too weak to do anything about it and could not even increase the size of the cracks already created by Lothur.
He saw the nervousness in her eyes and signaled to them not to worry, for he would find a way to survive and even escape.
"Wait for me..." He said in a subtle tone, slowly fainting.
But before he fell into the darkness of his faintness, Lothur saw Ice next to him, quite wounded, and threw a pill he had with him into this creature's mouth.
'This will save you...'
Those were the last things Lothur thought before his energy ran out, and those formations knocked him out.
When that happened, the formations controlled by those two Nascent Soul Transcendents quickly concentrated only on Lothur and Ice, leaving aside the rest of the youth who returned from the Secret Realm.
Such formations created a silver sphere of energy around Lothur, something that not only blocked the powers of those already chained within that sphere but also prevented people outside from probing their situation.
Only the controllers of the formations had this ability. Because of this, no one but them and the young people who came from the Secret Realm had any idea that he had achieved powerful soul cultivation in that place.
'The damned thing gave us a lot of trouble!' The woman thought while she was sweaty and tired.
Luckily, now that Lothur was in prison and with his body and soul cultivation sealed, there would be no more difficulties for her and her companion in escorting young Ritter to Imperial Prison.
That man landed next to his companion on the platform where the young men who had entered the Secret Realm were, standing around that silver sphere.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Viktoria was the first to react, shouting against those two who dared to arrest her husband.
Elke stood beside her with her fists firmly clenched, glaring at the two of them.
Meanwhile, Larissa did not understand what was happening, finding this action of Nascent Soul Transcendents against Lothur somewhat unexpected.
'What's been going on the last few days?'
The level 17 woman looked at Viktoria as the crowd fell into sepulchral silence. "First Miss Frost, I will forgive your insolence, for you have just returned from the Secret Realm, and this is still your husband, after all.
But don't you dare raise your voice to us! We are fulfilling an imperial edict!"
'Imperial edict?' Elke thought, along with the thousands of people who were still ignorant of it.
"What? What are you talking about? When we left for the Secret Realm, there was nothing like that against Lothur."
"Hmm, luckily, your husband entered the Secret Realm moments before we arrived in Peters City." That man answered Viktoria's questions while being impressed with the quality of the young people who returned from this event.
It was true that more people than usual had died in this event, even some young people that common sense said should not die, given their above-average qualities. But even so, if one include Lothur, three Transcendents had returned from this Secret Realm!
This was an impressive number, as it didn't normally happen!
At most, talented and lucky young people returning from Secret Realms would have items with them that would pave their cultivation journey to the 3rd stage in the future.
So not only these two envoys from the Third Prince but all the experts from Peters City and outside this province there at the moment were shocked by Larissa and Viktoria's auras.
'That must be Lothur's doing...' The Duke of Linn Province thought, judging the only possibility considering the known facts.
At the same time, he and others in the surrounding area couldn't help but lament the downfall of the young local genius.
If he had had the chance to stay there a few more months, he would probably have reached a level where neither these two nor the imperial family could act against him.
But now that all this had happened, Lothur was finished.
The Imperial Prison was dangerous because of its inmates but lousy because of the impossibility of getting stronger through resources or free spiritual energy in the air and earth. As such, Lothur would die or spend the rest of his days in that terrible place!
"Sigh... It's a shame he ended up like this. I wish I'd had the chance to convince him to deliver my cars early." One of the Dukes still there to contact Lothur commented to his colleague.
"Don't worry about that. Maybe we can convince the Frost girl." The other Duke there pointed in Viktoria's direction. "In Lothur's absence, she will be the controller of the Ritter Motor Company."
"Oh? That's not a bad alternative..."
As conversations spread in the surrounding area, with many already considering Lothur out of the local political game, some even considering approaching Viktoria, the two envoys of the Third Prince decided to leave.
"Let's go to the Imperial Prison." The woman said to her companion, eager to leave Lothur in his new home before they finally returned victoriously to the capital.
When they arrived in the capital, having fulfilled the wishes of the Third Prince, they would surely be rewarded for their meritorious services!
But before they left, Elke asked them. "Where are you taking them?"
"To the Imperial Prison, young lady. This man has committed serious crimes against the empire. He is a dangerous person." The woman said, noticing Lothur's aura in that poor naive soul. "Forget about him. You will never see him again."
"It's impossible to get out of the Imperial Prison." The man added, before floating next to his colleague, soon after taking off from there while carrying the semitransparent silver sphere where Lothur and Ice were.
Elke clenched her fingers tighter while Annaliese was held by her mother, and Viktoria held back from acting.
But they all trusted that Lothur would return, so the words of these people wouldn't keep them from their hopes.
'One day, all this will be returned, Third Prince!' Viktoria thought before those two carrying Lothur and Ice disappeared into the skies.
Meanwhile, above Peters City, a crack appeared in the air, and a hand appeared from there.
Just then, an old-looking man dressed in clothes from the Seraphim Church appeared there, looking at this place from which he had felt the feeling that he was after.
'Uh? A Secret Realm... So the dreadful creature was in it.' He thought as he scanned his surroundings.
'I'm not sensing anything. The strongest ones in the surroundings are those two carrying two prisoners... It is not possible that either of them is the one I am looking for. He wouldn't lose to two such weak beings.
But I don't feel his aura anywhere. Why is this so?
I'll find out the old-fashioned way!' Then he opened a spatial crack into the Secret Realm of that area!
...