Chapter 710 – Interrogation Room
"I can’t believe this..." Lux muttered.
He shifted slightly against the glowing restraint bands wrapped neatly around his torso and wrists. Unlike the earlier arrest ropes, these were thinner. More refined. More insulting. They glowed with soft doctrinal runes designed to suppress sudden teleportation, aura bursts, and apparently... dignity.
He sat tied to a polished interrogation chair carved from luminous star-marble, posture still sohow elegant despite being restrained like an overqualified criminal consultant.
Across from him sat Celestaria, composed as ever. Beside her stood Vizreel, wings folded but relaxed enough to suggest he personally vouched Lux wouldn’t suddenly explode into demon-shaped chaos.
Solara leaned against the wall to the right, golden aura radiating warm authority like sunlight through stained glass.
Selena stood opposite her, quieter, silver aura pooling like moonlight across the chamber floor.
The chief was conspicuously absent.
Celestaria had apparently invoked "high-ranked presence only," which translated loosely into ’this conversation is above your pay grade and also extrely politically explosive.’
Lux exhaled slowly through his nose.
At least there were two bright stars in this otherwise humiliating constellation. Vizreel’s servants for feeding Lux.
Vizreel placed a small celestial tray on the table between them. Tea. Cookies. Again. The sa forbidden caffeine blend he had smuggled earlier, now apparently repurposed as diplomatic interrogation snacks.
Lux stared at the tray.
Then at Vizreel.
Then back at the tray.
"...You feed your prisoners?" Lux asked flatly.
Vizreel crossed his arms. "You are not a prisoner."
Lux raised an eyebrow.
"I am tied to a chair."
"It is a precaution."
"You are literally giving tea and cookies while I am restrained."
"It is a good diplomatic attempt."
Lux leaned back slightly, testing the restraint bands again with theatrical resignation.
"I got tied on the Throne of Greed in the Infernal Realm," he said conversationally, "taphorically and occasionally politically. I got tied to a bed in the mortal realm by my harem because they wanted to rest and stop working." He glanced down at the glowing bindings around his arms. "And now this. Do I have a ’Please tie up’ sign on my forehead?"
Vizreel tilted his head slightly.
"I see," he said.
Lux sighed.
"So that is why you disappeared for a week?" Vizreel added.
Lux nodded solemnly.
"Yes. I was kidnapped by affection and poor stress managent."
Solara choked very softly into her sleeve.
Selena covered her mouth but her shoulders betrayed her.
Vizreel remained stone-faced.
Lux glanced back at him.
"You know," Lux added thoughtfully, "if you are going to tie to a chair, the least you could do is provide a good lap dancer."
Vizreel blinked once.
"We do not have that kind of thing here."
Lux clicked his tongue in visible disappointnt.
"Tragic."
Celestaria exhaled gently, though the faint curve at her lips betrayed she was suppressing amusent.
"Jokes aside," she said calmly, folding her hands on the table. "Tell what happened."
Lux leaned forward slightly. The restraint bands humd, allowing limited movent but reminding him very politely that spontaneous dramatic gestures were not recomnded.
His expression shifted.
The humor dimd. The CFO mask remained, but sothing colder surfaced beneath it.
"You already know the short version," Lux said. "We were ambushed during conference departure. Limbo containnt. Hybrid architecture. Celestial and infernal signatures."
Selena stepped closer slightly.
"You confird Vaeloryn’s involvent?" she asked quietly.
Lux nodded once.
"Arch-Luminary Vaeloryn personally executed the ambush. Attempted execution. Confird hostile intent."
Solara’s aura dimd slightly. Not anger. Concern.
Celestaria remained still, but her fingers tightened just slightly atop the table.
"And the infernal trace?" she asked.
Lux hesitated.
Not because he doubted them.
Because saying it out loud ant it stopped being theory and started being war material.
Vizreel watched him carefully.
"You can speak," the Archon said quietly.
Lux exhaled through his nose again.
"Royal infernal bloodline authority," he said. "Pureborn. Highest clearance. System traced portal override to sovereign-level command."
The room fell silent.
Even the ambient authority runes lining the interrogation chamber dimd slightly, as if reacting to the political weight of that sentence.
Solara straightened.
"You are suggesting the Infernal Sovereign himself aided Vaeloryn?"
Lux shrugged lightly, though his eyes remained sharp.
"I am suggesting the portal that extracted him used a signature only the Infernal Sovereign possesses."
Selena crossed her arms, gaze narrowing in calculation.
"Could it have been stolen?"
Lux shook his head imdiately.
"No. Royal infernal authority signatures are not just blood-based. They are existentially coded. You do not steal them. You are born with them... or you are the one who grants them."
Celestaria studied him carefully.
"And you believe this was directed specifically at you?"
Lux smiled faintly. Not humor. Sothing sharper.
"I am the only entity who signed cross-realm economic contracts with my soul as collateral. Killing destabilizes trade infrastructure, reincarnation debt cycles, and infernal-celestial treaty finance."
Vizreel nodded grimly.
"He is correct."
Lux continued.
"Vaeloryn called it doctrinal contamination. Said my existence encourages balance where purity should dominate."
Solara frowned.
"Purity doctrine extremists..."
Selena nodded slowly.
"They have existed before. Never at execution sovereign level."
Celestaria leaned back slightly, absorbing the implications.
"And Vaeloryn escaped injured," she said.
Vizreel stepped forward slightly.
"I pierced his authority core. Lux fractured it further. He will not recover quickly."
Lux raised a finger slightly.
"Correction. He will recover. But he will be very, very angry during the recovery process."
Solara sighed softly.
"That is not comforting."
"It is realistic," Lux replied.
Celestaria watched him for another long mont.
"And you are certain," she said, voice quieter now, "that you were not lured into this by infernal political maneuvering against you personally?"
Lux laughed once. Dry.
"Oh, I am absolutely certain there are infernal factions trying to kill personally," he said. "That is Tuesday."
Vizreel nodded once, completely serious.
Lux continued.
"But this? This was coordinated. Strategic. Designed to destabilize both realms simultaneously while removing as the contractual anchor."
Selena stepped closer to the table.
"If the Infernal Sovereign is involved... even indirectly... this becos an interrealm crisis."
Lux nodded.
"Congratulations. You are now experiencing my weekly schedule."
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