After hearing that individual's voice, each of those Spiritual Kings in that place fell silent for a moment, thinking about that point raised.
'Really... He should be here.' One of those people thought to himself, as his eyes opened wider and wider, and he felt his wounds getting less and less painful. "I didn't see, nor did I feel Dean Chambers in this city!" He shouted, making all those people realize the same thing.
"I didn't see anything either."
"I thought he was standing next to old devil Virgil..."
"Damn! If he's not here, where can he be? Didn't our scouts warn us that he wasn't with any of the other groups of this family?"
"He shouldn't be anywhere else but here!" Another person commented as he related the group's planning before this operation.
At first, it would be impossible for them to bring such a massive force to the Chambers family headquarters without alarming such an organization.
After all, the family of the late Leroy had advanced teams around this city that watched and fought enemies who tried to move towards Persephone.
That was a common practice of the regional families, something they would do even in times of peace. For this very reason, the Hayes family had not failed to put such a thing into their planning!
These were the tumultuous times of war, and there should undoubtedly be more significant forces on the outskirts of this city.
As expected, there were indeed many forces of this organization in the vicinity. To be precise, more than 20% of the troops of this family were around this territory.
But as they had considered this, the members of the House Hayes and the allied families of this organization in this war had acted together against such enemies groups!
They had secretly kidnapped the most powerful individuals from those groups, as well as those of noble origin, the people who might have soul lamps in the headquarters of the Chambers family.
After all, Minos' allies could not kill these people, or the Chambers family headquarters would find out that something wrong was going on before this young man even acted!
But that was not the hardest thing to do. There were few nobles in each family and not so many high-level subordinates. As such, accomplishing this work had been, in a way, the easy part of this plan.
The hard part was subsequent. That is, slaughtering the thousands of people around the Chambers family territory, those people who could notify or stop this invading group from traveling!
That had all happened in the last two days, and before this group came to Persephone, they had been notified of the enemy Spiritual Kings who were captive to their companions!
Because of this, these people knew that Dean was not in any of the Chambers family groups around this territory!
On the other hand, as enemies of this organization, the Hayes family experts kept an eye on the exit and entry of Spiritual Kings from this Chambers territory.
For this very reason, they didn't expect Dean to be anywhere else but this town!
Anyway, upon realizing that the Chambers patriarch was missing, these surviving Spiritual Kings were all nervous, wondering about the consequences, as well as where they had gone wrong.
'Where is he? How could we have lost track of such a strong person?'
'Damn it! My group was responsible for this!'
'How could no one have noticed a level 57 Spiritual King leaving this territory? That should be easy for us...'
'Maybe he ran away? No, it can't be!'
'He wouldn't run away without at least trying to fight! And if he had done that, we would have realized his presence in this city!' So, someone else thought, trying to understand the mystery.
'But regardless of how he managed to leave this place without a trace, we will have to bear the consequences of his running away!' The strongest person there thought to himself, as he felt that if Dean had signed a Soul Contract with the Scourge of the Devil experts, that would not be good for them at all.
If a person with such contact with that organization survived, the chances of revenge happening in the future would be much higher!
"Damn it! Quick, send a message to the family!" That Spiritual King, level 57, said this solemnly while getting more and more worried.
...
But while those Spiritual Kings were worrying about Dean Chambers, that man was at this moment in a cave in a forested region of his family's territory.
Unfortunately for Dean, he was not there of his own free will.
A few days ago, Dean and his escort team had left Persephone and headed towards one of the Chambers family's temporary camps around this territory.
They had done this to ensure the safety of this family's territory since Wallace's group had left one of these areas to go on an assassination mission...
Previously Wallace's group was responsible for leading the security around this family's territory since this man was only the third strongest in this family.
As such, he was acting around this territory, defending the family's interests, while this organization's two most vital individuals were in Persephone, protecting their headquarters.
But with Wallace leaving to eliminate an enemy that was a potential problem for the family, the patriarch Dean had replaced him in that task.
At first, such a thing was not supposed to be done by the patriarch. However, as Virgil was nearing the end of his life, the leaders of this family had thought it best to keep such a person at headquarters. There, the chances of something problematic happening were insignificant.
On the other hand, deadly dangerous trouble could happen at any time on the outskirts of the family's territory. And suppose Virgil had gone to take Wallace's position. In that case, the chances of this family losing a level 57 Spiritual King would have been much more significant than if Dean had made such a replacement.
That is because while that old patriarch could die after any grave battle, the same was not true for Dean, who had a strong vigor and many years of life left. That is, even if he fought a mortal fight, as long as he returned alive, he had a good chance of recovering, something Virgil wouldn't.
As such, the patriarch Dean had left Persephone to watch the outskirts of his family's territory.
But unfortunately for the father of the late Kevin, he had been captured by an enemy two days ago...
Anyway, at this moment, Dean was tied to a steel chair. But, at the same time, he had a necklace around his neck that sealed his spiritual cultivation.
On the other hand, while tied to this chair, he was completely naked, with several wounds around his body, and looked highly miserable.
He had several wounds to specific points on his feet, fingers, hands, arms, and genital organs, all of which could be easily identified as torture operations!
But in addition to these points, his face was very swollen at this point, indicating that he had taken quite a beating before he ended up in this situation.
And with all these tender points around his body, Dean was uncontrollably breathing as he screamed in pain, once again being tortured by this one enemy of his.
"Ahhhh!"
"Ahhhhhh! Please stop it! Stop it!" He screamed in desperation as his nailless fingers trembled, and he felt that enemy torturing him.
"Dean, I already told you, if you don't want to suffer, just tell the truth." Then, finally, the captor of this Chambers family patriarch said something. At the same time, such a person had a stern look on his face and did what was necessary to extract the information from this target.
"Someone in your family did something truly foolish... Do you think you are untouchable in our region? Do you actually think you can act against the royal families of our region and still survive?" This level 57 Spiritual King asked coldly, pressing Dean's wounds again.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
And after crying in pain for some more time, Dean finally could no longer hold back the truth.
"Ahhhhhh! I will speak! I will speak!"
He had suffered two whole days of torture at the hands of this person without saying a word. But after so much suffering, he had reached the point where he could no longer hold the truth.
The person against him was an expert in torture, someone capable of extracting the truth from even the most outstanding regional leaders. So, even if he didn't want to rat out his own brother, he didn't have much room for action against such an opponent.
"Speak up, or this will go on for a long time!"
Gulp!
And then Dean replied. "Hah... Hah... My family actually gave the order to kill the second prince... Hah...."
