Chapter 676 - 676: Cards
Kellian glanced back at Veracity in the back.
"He is lying," Veracity responded.
"I had a feeling that it was the case when I heard your explanation," Kellian said, sighing.
He lazily stood up. "Don't you think you chose the wrong time to play your cards?"
"What is happening here?" Salazar asked, frowning.
Xaen also stood up, amused. He looked at Veracity.
"You really brought a snake into our home, didn't you?" Kellian asked Salazar, shaking his head. "If I had known this was going to happen, I would've warned you in advance."
"I don't understand what you're saying," Salazar let out, still not understanding.
"Yeah. What are you trying to say?" Cassius also asked.
Kellian clapped his hand once, letting his shadows appear under the bed on the hunting ground. The dark shadows swallowed Lucifer along with the bed.
"W-what are you doing? Are you betraying us?" Cassius roared, pulling out his Sword. "Kellian, if you're really trying to hurt Lucifer, you will regret it!"
Almost everyone was shocked at Kellian's actions. But most believed that he might have a reason. And one of them was Alicia.
"Don't worry. I'm keeping him in the shadow realm. He'll be safe there, in a place where our friend here can't hurt him," Kellian replied calmly.
"Arthur, you've seen it before, right?"
"Yeah. Lucifer won't be hurt there," Arthur agreed. "But may we ask why you're doing it?'
"As I said, I'm doing it to keep Lucifer safe from him," Kellian replied, pointing towards Xaen.
"From me?" Xaen asked, frowning. "But I'm only here to save Lucifer. I have no ulterior motive."
"Another lie," Veracity once again chimed in.
"Let me guess, you don't want him to lose his abilities so you're accusing me? You don't want me to save him, do you? Let me guess. You want leadership? I can understand why you'd be tired of working under a youngster," Xaen said, sighing.
"But it's more important than you or me. We need to save him!"
Cassius looked confused at Kellian and Xaen. Who was wrong? What was happening?
Seeing the atmosphere getting tense, Milena decided to intervene.
"Kellian, you speak first. What are you doing?" She asked.
"What's happening is that you people were stupid enough to invited him. Just a couple of weeks ago, someone hacked our system and stole all our plans!" Kellian explained. "Kane tracked the signal back to... Guess where?"
Cassius glanced at Xaen, understanding what Kellian was implying.
"Exactly. The signal came from your island. They very carefully hid their traces, but it wasn't just hard to find either. I decided to investigate it because I wanted to make sure it wasn't the Warlock Council." Kellian said.
"But I couldn't leave the base without any supervision. So I split my body in two. One went to the island to find the truth while the other remained at the base to fight in the war."
He looked at Milena. "It happened not long before we left for those places. With a little help, I was able to track the person. The person also confessed the truth. He did it because someone named Xaen Eandrel told him."
"I wanted to personally meet you to ask why you did it, but I heard quite a lot of praise for you. Apparently you're pretty strong. I thought it was better to intercept you after we were done with the Warlock Council battles, so I came back to Elisium."
"You can certainly expect my surprise when I was told that these people called you here to help Lucifer."
"And it's not surprising to see what you suggested and why you did what you did. You read our plan, didn't you?" Kellian asked, frowning.
"You know stopping Lucifer would be hard for you, so you decided to use this opportunity? Take out his abilities right before our eyes while acting like a savior." He looked at Salazar. "And you fell for it? You idiots, you were giving weak Lucifer to this wolf to devour? Why are you all such idiots?!"
"You made a really good story. I must give you props." Xaen smiled. "Unfortunately, none of that is true. Why would I want to hurt Lucifer? He is the grandson of my friend. In fact, I even helped by letting Cassius take the Limiters for Lucifer."
"You know what's funny?" Kellian asked. "The system breach happened right after Cassius informed us about receiving the Limiters. You gave him Limiters, but you still weren't at ease, thinking about the future."
"Look, I understand you're jealous of Lucifer and can go to any extent to protect your interest, even if it means sacrificing Lucifer. But making up such a ludacris story?" Xaen looked at Cassius. "Do you believe this guy?"
"Who said you need to believe me?" Kellian asked, smiling. "Why else do you think I immediately didn't expose you? I wanted to make sure if you were actually scheming something or you were actually trying to help Lucifer."
"I literally would've let you take out all abilities of Lucifer if your first answer hadn't been a lie."
"It wasn't a lie though," Xaen said.
"Another lie," Veracity again chimed in.
Xaen's face twitched a bit. "Stop speaking that. I can also say you're lying. It doesn't matter."
"You see, it matters when she says it," Kellian replied. "Because Veracity can detect lies. That's her ability."
He glanced at Cassius and Salazar. "You should know that as well. Moreover, she's always been more loyal to Lucifer than to me. It's not a hidden fact."
"I have one question then," Salazar let out. "If you can give a reasonable answer, I'll believe you.'
"Go ahead. What do you want to know?"
"I heard that your body was destroyed here. All of your shadows were destroyed after that. How did your other half stay alive? And if what was destroyed wasn't the real you, then why were all shadows destroyed? Something doesn't make sense."
"Have you ever wondered why I'm called a Warlock and not a Sorcerer?" Kellian asked. "The answer is hidden in there."
"You mean.... Your Physical Ability?"
"Somewhat. Besides my elemental abilities of shadows, I also have the ability to create another me. Both Kellian's were like different people, possessing the same abilities. But this ability is something I rarely use."
"Because it's something that eats a lot of energy and only one of my two selves can possess complete power. The other has only a fraction of my true power."
"Are you the real one or the one with a fraction of your power?"
"You think I would send my weaker self to war here?" Kellian asked, rolling his eyes.. "But my other self is destroyed, so this body should soon return to my full glory."