Thinking about the situation in front of them along with the one behind them, they quickly retreated to the fortress. Out of the ten that had gone outside to negotiate, only four were left.

"I want them found, NOW!" Hera ordered, her anger shaking the entire fortress.

While the men were able to make it back inside the same door they exited from, they had been seen coming back in so it was easy enough to figure out how they had gotten inside. Not only that, but being in close contact with the god ranked beasts outside, there was a certain aura on them that they couldn’t hide. So even though they changed clothes and went separate ways, they were found out in no time.

The people themselves were nothing special, but they had been people who had been taken in when they had fled to the fortress, their wealth and followers in tow. While their lives hadn’t been as great as before this all happened, they weren’t really restricted in any way either. They just wanted their lives back from before and couldn’t appreciate what luck they had been given.

"You can’t kill us. Empire’s law says we just need to pay a cost for our transgressions and we can be freed," one of them tried to argue, an older man who was known to have a thing for young women. As he had been trapped in the fortress for a while, he was getting sick of the ones he had brought with him and wasn’t able to really find others to suit his taste. And even when he did, what means would he have to be able to take advantage of them now.

"Torture him until his eyes and teeth fall out, his skin is peeled from his body and his manhood has been removed from him piece by piece. I’d say inch by inch, but what’s the point in only making two cuts?" Hera ordered as the man started pleading with her, along with the others next to him.

They kept bringing up the empire’s laws until Hera could no longer bare it.

"THE EMPIRE IS GONE. THE ONLY LAW NOW IS MINE! DO IT!" Hear ordered and the specialist went to work.

Hera didn’t stick around to watch, calling all of her generals and advisors to the main hall.

"This is the situation we are in," Hera started, before speaking about what exactly this betrayal meant to them.

One of her advisors asked the question.

"Why didn’t you speak of what this seal could do sooner my liege?" He asked, knowing that doing so was rude, but also knowing that everyone here was feeling slightly betrayed by her withholding such information from them.

"Simply put, I trusted each and everyone one of you. But be honest with both me and yourself right now. To save your families, children, wives and husbands, what would you have done if offered a choice? How much does the empire really matter to you when the fact is there is no empire left to defend anymore. Right now, it’s just us, here, holding up in this fortress until death comes for us. And the traitors were right in one instance. They are no longer attacking. Instead, they were wait until the shadow dragon can bring reinforcements in from the outside and then take over this entire plane without resistance. What they don’t understand is that when that happens, the shadow dragons master will have no use for the residents of this pocket dimension except to use them as maybe sport or game or training for his own followers. This world will be bathed in both the blood of humans and of the beasts and they are too stupid to even understand that, thinking they will be spared. Perhaps a few will be left to manage this place, but even that I doubt. After all, a private hunting ground of god beasts and humans will be a nice perk for them...." Hera said, revealing both her thoughts and the ones Laz had shared with her.

While everyone quietly went over the coming life of slavery in their minds, Laz stepped out from the shadows.

"It’s not quite over yet Empress," Laz said with a smile.

"What do you mean? They have the key..."

"But the door wasn’t exactly designed to be opened from the inside. This place was a trap world you former husband stumbled into. Once you come in, you’re not suppose to go back out. While there is a key, it will take a weakened shadow dragon a while to use it. And if we can get there before it and stop it, we can all leave at that point," Laz suggested, considering this was their original plan and it hadn’t exactly changed. After all, the door was still going to be opened, just by someone else now.

They just needed to get to the door in time.

Hera smiled when hearing this. With the key being stolen, she had been consumed by that failure and didn’t take the time to think that it really changed nothing except for their time table,

"How long before we can move?" Hera asked, but Laz shook his head.

"I’m not sure. Nor am I sure how long it will take the shadow dragon to open the door. But since the door wasn’t locked on the outside, I have a conjecture that might help to calm everyone’s minds."

"What would that be?" One of them asked.

"I don’t think the key can be removed from inside the door. So even if the beast opens it and steps out, the key should remain nearby. We can then leave. Unfortunately, the end result will be the same whether we are inside out outside the door. We must contend with the shadow dragon at some point."

"But if we get outside... won’t the beast have help waiting for it?" Someone else asked.

"It would. But so would we. Even if we didn’t, I would have someone I could contact once back outside that could solve the problem. The question is how long it would take for those reinforcements to arrive as I have no idea. If the shadow dragon’s help gets there first, then we are, without a doubt, screwed. If ours gets there, we are saved."

"So it would be a gamble?" Hera pointed out.

"Yes."

"So our best course of action?"

"If we can get to the door, delay the beast and get outside first, we should be able to get our help here before it can get it’s help here. Basically, the sooner the call goes out, the sooner one side of the other will show up," Laz assured them.

What he didn’t mention, however, was whether or not A’ruya would have the forces to prepare and what type of problems they might have if the nameless one tried to intervein after it did arrive. He didn’t know what the power dynamic was between the Elder Fae and the Nameless God.

But they didn’t need to know that. This was their one shot at survival as far as he could see.

Of course this was dependent on whether or not they could get there in time.

"Well. We are ready to go now, but there is a bit of concern about where exactly we will show up. You told us where the gate is and we’ve set the coordinates. But even you aren’t one hundred percent sure about it being there. And on top of that, setting a short range teleport isn’t hard, but doing so for this entire fortress and the black castle up there as well... well... it adds layers of complications to the equation...." Tamesis tried to explain.

Laz didn’t understand, but he knew that if Tamesis said it was an issue, it was an issue. He trusted her to that extent, especially since they were all on the same boat.

"Can we do it or not?" Hera said, also not understanding, but not wanting to overthink it.

"We can."

"When?"

"Now?"

"Give us one hour to prep. Laz, have the troops ready at the gate to storm out once we get there. You. Get the merchants to stock up and be ready to move in case we need to abandon the fortress. Pooja, get your people to work with the guards. I want everyone ready to move out of the fortress the moment we are able to if the gate is open. If we can’t get the fortress out the door then the people need to be ready to leave, even if we are under fire. No matter what happens, we need to be the first ones outside of the door once it opens. We also have no idea if the beast will be alone or if it will have additional help. If it does have help, it may come down to just saving whoever we can save, even at the cost of others lives. If anyone has anything to add, now would be the time?"

Not a word was spoken.

"Good. Be ready. Once the bell tolls, the operation begins!"