"The jammers only affect the Empire. It stops people from contacting the outside world without our permission, but it doesn't apply outside the Empire! And guess who could have contacted your team outside? The only person who was missing!" Arthur yelled. 

"I can't believe I honestly thought that you people were innocent and that Lucifer was kidnapped! It is clear that it was all a trap! He actually ran away, not because he was scared but because he wanted to leave the Empire so he could arrange an attack! The timing matches perfectly!" he added. 

"Nonsense! Why would we even do something like that when we had the opportunity to take the fragment by winning the tournament? It's much easier than waging a war!" Salazar retorted. 

"Because he realized that he couldn't win?! He probably saw it in his prediction dream! It's obvious now! I was so stupid to trust that bastard! He betrayed us all, but he doesn't know what he did!" Arthur responded.

"So what if he brought an army! The Divine Empire will become the Graveyard of the Warlock Council! If he brought a hundred, we would kill a hundred! If he brought a thousand, we would kill a thousand! Not a single person from them will leave alive!" he declared. 

Salazar still didn't believe it, but he felt like Arthur wasn't lying. From his mannerism, it appeared that he was telling the truth. But he still couldn't believe it. Did the Warlock Council really make a surprise attack? How come Heath didn't know about this?

"Do you have any proof that it's the Warlock Council which is attacking us?" he asked Arthur. 

"Is this proof enough?" Feronia said, stepping forward. 

She showed her phone to Salazar, which was showing live footage. 

It showed a devastated border defense. There was fire and destruction everywhere. Dead bodies were spread everywhere. All the defense mechanisms were destroyed. 

A group of planes could be seen in the footage, advancing towards the Royal Capital. 

That footage didn't leave any room to doubt since there was a huge Warlock Council symbol on the plane and the name written in bold letters. It was evident that these were the Warlock Council planes. 

In the footage, some Warlocks could be seen standing on the top of the planes while others were flying right beside it!

A crimson barrier was also surrounding the planes, not affecting the wind at all. It was just here to stop any unseen attacks from damaging the Warlock Council planes. 

"Is that enough? Or do you still want to deny it? After we treated you people like guests, you really went ahead to backstab us like that? You should be ashamed!" Feronia scolded Sirius as well.

"But we can't blame you. You outsiders have dirty blood. You just showed it!"

Seeing the footage, Salazar was convinced that the Warlock Council had really mounted a sneak attack. Those sneaky bastards!

He also knew one more thing though. An attack was going to come. Feronia and Arthur were both going to attack him soon in their anger. It was as if they were just waiting for an explanation. 

In their eyes, Salazar and others were enemies after all. He had no choice but to escape from this place with the others. 

"Are you going to let us explain? We didn't know about this. We can certainly stop it!" Caen said, trying to get some time.

"We don't need your help. We know full well how to protect our homeland!" Feronia responded. "Unfortunately, you won't be there to see it!"

It was clear that it was too late to do anything now. They were trapped in the Palace with two High Lords, and all evidence pointed against them. No matter what they said, it wasn't going to help them!

They could only fight their way out. 

"Even though you don't believe us, just know that we're not behind this. But to save us, we would still resist," Salazar let out, deciding to go all out. 

He spread his time domain, slowing down the time in his surroundings while running to Arthur, who was closest to him. 

As if realizing what was happening, Arthur instantly teleported behind Salazar. He was prepared for something like this since he knew Salazar's powers. 

....

In the vast sea, there appeared to be a small island that was covered with water from all sides. 

The island wasn't very big, only having a diameter of two kilometers. The island was covered with sand only. Not a single tree or plantation could be seen in a place one this. 

This was the place where Lucifer found himself. He was standing at the shore of the beach, looking at the vast sea. 

There was a questioning gaze on his face as he wondered how he ended up in a place like this. 

From what he could remember, he was standing in the temple with Sirius. And the next thing he knew, he was on this beach?

"What just happened there? It didn't look like a teleportation. Is it a dream prison? Or some illusion? Or did I recall teleport?"

There were many questions in his head and not enough answers. He knew that he needed to find an escape. But he didn't know how he could. 

If it was really teleportation, then it was a big problem since he needed to find his way back to the Divine Empire. If it wasn't because of the teleportation, then it was an even bigger problem because it meant that he was in a dream and his body was still at the mercy of others.

"Even after I went through so much, how could I be stupid enough to fall to this?" he muttered, scratching the back of his head. He couldn't believe he actually fell for it. "I should've killed Sirius outside the Temple instead of going in. My curiosity got the best of me."

"But what did Sirius do? If he had the potential to do it, he could have done it even before. Why would he take me to the Temple? Unless the temple had something which boosted his ability?"

"Or could it be that he wasn't the one who did it? And he simply took me to the thing that could? He was certainly talking about something weird. As if Dungeon Dwellers were his idols. Why would he think like that?"

"No sane person would think that unless they were brainwashed by a Dungeon Dweller."

He started walking back and forth on the beach as he tried to come up with a plan. 

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