The fairy king was, just like always, overseeing the situation on the three planes. Various high-level spirits that he entrusted the responsibility to act as his proxies in their respective worlds and realms, just like always, gathered in the throne room. The burden of leading countless sentient races on their road to peace, progress and prosperity was very tough and the responsibility of guiding his fellow high spirits only added to that burden but he never complained. The king, with his boundless wisdom, after all, understood that someone had to do this. And that there was absolutely no one who could do the job better than him.

The situation in his domain was never simple. The three planes that he governed were full of places where life could flourish and that meant that there would always be some kind of problem that required his attention. Though lately, things have been relatively calm. As the highest authority, only the biggest threats that his proxies couldn’t handle with their own powers were to be presented to him, so the relative calmness at the moment could be considered a good sign. Though, somehow, the king couldn’t help but feel anxious. Nothing is ever simple after all.

His expectations for something bad to happen were soon answered as the wall in the castle right in front of the throne room was completely obliterated with no culprit in sight. Naturally, the wall patched itself up immediately and the guards in the castle along with the soldiers in the Realm were mobilized as well. Though the commotion in the throne room took a bit of time to die down. The king felt rather sad that his trusted proxies were so easily flustered but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment so he chose to analyze the situation instead.

First, no one died or was heavily injured. Assassination was out of the question then.

Something in the castle? While it’s true that there were many great treasures here, but for someone able to damage the castle to such an extent those treasures were probably worthless. They could just contact a witch and trade with them for whatever they wanted – no need to antagonize a behemoth like the Fey Realm.

To cause a distraction? The attackers were never in the castle in the first place? Hm, worth to consider-

Everything turned red. Alarm? They probably sent someone inside then.

No, it’s THAT alarm! So that’s why they came here!

It’s the alarm of the abyssal prison! The prison where the most notorious monsters that couldn’t be killed were sealed! They wanted to break someone out!

He sent a telepathic message to 6 squads that were stationed the closest to the entrance of the prison to get the intruders there without delay.

Then he raised the formations to obstruct dimensional travel so the culprits wouldn’t escape. After that he sealed all the towers except for the main one in a subspace with its time stopped, sent out his proxies to the towns and cities of the Realm to ensure the safety of the Realm’s citizens and sealed the entrance to the main tower and reinforced the barriers. Now even if the enemy hit it with force a hundred times larger they wouldn’t even put a scratch on the tower. Now he was sure that whoever it was that attacked them earlier would not leave the Realm alive and without a thorough interrogation.

All he had to do was wait. The idiots wouldn’t even get close to the real entrance of the prison – the cells. There were twenty doors with only one being real and that one is chosen through an extremely complicated randomizing pattern. Every other one would lead to a copy of the true entrance where the culprit would be captured. Surely, after the alarm went off they ran into the trap in a hurry!

And even if they arrived at the real entrance the guard would capture them without fail. Only the elites are allowed to guard something so important after all.

While it’s true that they might be powerful but even if the guard won’t be able to defeat them the royal squads would then arrive and the culprits will be caught.

And even if, by some ungodly miracle, the culprits will defeat the guard in a stupidly short amount of time and get to the cells and, somehow, immediately find the one they need they will never be able to open them. It would be impossible to deactivate all the safety protocols and destroying them by force would require enough power to shatter a planet into little bits!

So wait he did. And he monitored the situation of the prison. He could only know the state of various things inside as the dimension-transporting mechanism in the doors would interfere with anything else.

In twenty seconds his face was pale with too many emotions to count trying to surface at the same time.

“H-how can this be?” - With no strength in his voice he asked himself.

The elite guard was killed pretty much the moment the intruder walked in. The king wondered if the poor fella even had the chance to retaliate.

The cell was also found in no time at all. The space around it was sealed in a blink of an eye and judging by the readings, the seal was at least three times as powerful as the one used on the towers.

And finally, the cell was shattered. All in all, it took twenty seconds. The guards came just three seconds late and could no longer do anything about it.

“Just who – It can’t be! The Blasphemer!” In all the three planes who else had both the ability and the motivation to do something like this? Only the abominable monster named Aurora. But it’s been ten thousand years since the last news of the witch. While for immortals such an amount of time couldn’t be considered too large but to leave absolutely no traces during this time? – impossible. That’s why it was generally believed that the Blasphemer died.

Before the king could continue his own line of thought the entire Realm felt something descending. He didn’t know what it was but even a spirit as powerful as he couldn’t help but feel horror from his very core. Naturally, whatever was on his mind at that moment was filled with thoughts of escaping, feelings of despair and fear. It didn’t last for long though as every single last spirit in the tower, including the king, disappeared to never return. And in the middle of the throne room, a fickle silhouette began to take shape while blinking in and out of existence. Soon it solidified and it turned into a beautiful lady in a black dress whose features one couldn’t see and then her image became clearer and discernable. When she finally stabilized the otherworldly presence went away. In a few moments, the gates leading to the throne room shattered and a man with an eerie atmosphere with a fairy dressed in blue stepped in.