Just as he expected, within seconds, a heavy electric current coursed through the body of Salazar, making him groan in pain.
His eyes closed as he dropped to the ground.
"As I said, your life is in my hands now," Lucifer muttered, glancing at Salazar lying on his feet. "You can't go anywhere."
"Kellian, take him," he told Kellian again.
"I'll take care of it," Kellian affirmed, stepping towards Salazar but stopped right beside Lucifer. "I'm glad you didn't choose him. Thanks for sticking by us."
Lucifer didn't react.
He simply glanced at the clouded sky. 'I didn't do this for you, Kellian. I did it because I wanted to do it. I've long stopped dreaming about an ordinary life. I'm not going anywhere with him.'
He didn't speak his thoughts openly.
One of the Warlocks picked up Salazar and carried him, following Kellian.
All the Warlocks went back inside the building, leaving only Lucifer standing on the roof.
"Salazar Lucia, huh. Ability to slow down time. A good ability indeed. Maybe I'll be able to take it as well, someday," Lucifer commented, glancing at his hands.
Soon, the Uprising helicopter also reached there. It landed on the helipad at the top of the building. The doors opened. Yaliza and others stepped out.
Seeing Lucifer standing on the roof and no commotion in his surroundings, Yaliza understood that everything was over. "Is Salazar dead?"
"He's not dead. He's in our prison now," Lucifer replied.
"Isn't he a risky person to keep imprisoned? His powers can certainly help him escape."
"Don't worry. I took care of that too. He won't be able to use his powers. As long as he's here, he'll be no more than a normal person," Lucifer replied. "How powers are blocked."
"How is that possible? Can powers really be blocked like that?" Yaliza inquired, surprised.
The knowledge about this technology wasn't available on this continent. Almost no one here knew that something like this was even possible.
It sounded like a conspiracy theory that someone could just block someone's powers. It was impossible unless he had powers of Varant, but even then, there were certain limitations.
"Do you have the abilities of Varant too? You can block people's powers?' Yaliza inquired.
"I can't. It's because of a neat toy that I found on a different continent. The world is really vast, and so is the technology available in this world," Lucifer replied, staring into the distance. "You'll learn soon enough."
....
Three hours passed. Lucifer had finished taking a shower, and now he was resting in his room, waiting for sleep.
Knock!
Hearing the knock on the door, he stood up and opened the door.
Seeing Kellian at the entrance, he walked back to the bed and sat down before asking, "What brought you here?"
"I wanted to talk about Salazar," Kellian responded.
"What about him?"
"I wanted to know about your plans for him. Why are we keeping him alive?" Kellian asked. "I think killing him would be better."
"I have my personal reasons for that. I want to test something with him," Lucifer answered. "So he can't die."
"Test something? What tests?"
"You won't understand at the moment. Just keep him alive and make sure he doesn't escape. That shouldn't be hard with the way he is now," Lucifer vaguely answered.
"Also, are you going to explain why you ignored my commands?" he asked, changing the topic.
"What commands?" Kellian asked.
"The commands about not meeting Salazar? Why didn't you listen? And you even disconnected the call?" Lucifer asked.
"Ah, that! I didn't disconnect the call. My phone turned off as soon as I told you about the arrival of Salazar."
"I didn't hear anything after that point. And Salazar was already at the entrance. I just couldn't get myself to leave when the enemy was before us."
"Even if that meant your death? What would you have done if I hadn't come on time? Do you know how close you were to death? If I were even a second late, your head would have been rolling in the ground."
"I know. And I'm really grateful for your help. I didn't really expect things to get that bad. Probably because I underestimated Salazar, but if I had that choice again, I would still do the same. I can't run away when the enemy is in front of me!" Kellian explained.
"Moreover, I can't leave my team behind. Today, we lost four of them. If I weren't here, we would have lost all of them," he added.
"You care for your team more than your own life?" Lucifer asked, observing the seriousness of Kellian.
"What's life? One day, everyone will die. I'm as scared of death as I'm scared of losing everyone else that makes me who I am," Kellian answered. "I don't want to go back to that again."
As he thought about his answer, he started remembering his past, which brought him to memory lane.
"You also didn't have a family?" Lucifer asked.
"Not just me; almost all the Uprising Members are orphans actually. We're each other's family. When Caen told you that Uprising is a big family, he wasn't lying," Kellian answered.
"We all faced some form of cruelty from the system, which is why we supported the cause of the Uprising so much. We don't want to live in a fake world that doesn't support us and people like us."
"We wanted to create a world of our own where people like us didn't need to surrender. Where they didn't need to die. A world which they could truly call their home."
As Kellian kept speaking, he became more and more passionate.
"What happened to you in the past? How did you suffer?" Lucifer asked.
"I didn't suffer that much physically, but yeah. I didn't have a family. Well, actually, I did have a family, but I'm ashamed to even call them my family," Kellian let out. "When I awakened, I was a young kid. I was barely nine years old."
He stepped forward and sat on a nearby chair, lost in past memories.
"It was when powers had just started appearing in the world. Most of the world didn't even know about such things. Even I didn't know what was happening. One day, my mother watched my shadow move on its own."
"She noticed me playing with my shadows, commanding them. My shadows even listened to me sometimes. It was just the start."
"You know what her first thought was when she saw it?" Kellian asked, sighing.
"What?"
"She thought I was possessed by a demon."
"Seeing me like that scared her so much, she didn't listen to anything. She called a priest to do some sort of exorcism," Kellian said, sighing.