The Devil's Cage

Sanctuary Island.

It had been a long time since the foyer hall was opened up and it finally did during sunrise.

The knights-in-reserve opened up the big door to the hall and on the flight of stairs that led up to the hall. There were two knights-in-reserve on each flight of stairs at both ends, standing in an upright position.

The knights-in-reserve lined up neatly across the stairs, a total of 333 steps of stairs was filled up with twice the knights.

A group of people was walking towards it from afar.

Kieran and Schmidt walked side-by-side and before them was Nicil and another deacon that they didn’t know of.

"So dazzling!"

Schmidt saw the knights-in-reserve with their shining white armor, it was as if he was looking straight at the sun, causing him to daze out for a while and had to block his eyes from the light.

Kieran too saw the knights-in-reserve in shining armor, they were looking lively and energetic, though his attention eventually landed on the deacon before him that he didn’t know of.

Although the knights-in-reserve were quite a decent view, what really concerned Kieran was the unknown deacon.

Kieran sensed the man was really old by his temperament, similar to what his age displayed, old and withered. Even according to the mystical realm counting of age, he was really old but his movements were nimble.

It felt like he was walking on flat land when climbing up the 333 flight of stairs.

Of course, most importantly was the other member’s gaze at him. It was not just simple respect but more of a reverence towards the man.

It was far better than the gazes of surprised and doubtful that they placed on himself.

"Phew! Finally we’ve gotten up!" Schmidt gave a long breath.

Schmidt wasn’t concerned about the 333 flight of stairs since he maintained a regular workout routine but the gazes from the knights-in-reserve were too much for him to bear.

In fact, so did Kieran but he did a better job in covering his expression.

"This way please!"

The unknown deacon bowed meticulously and gave a please gesture, so did Nicil.

Even more so, Nicil was displaying a solemn face and presenting a never before seen holiness with his actions.

Schmidt stared at Nicil, if it wasn’t for witnessing all sorts of inappropriate behaviour, he might have really believed it.

Schmidt winked at Nicil, seeing whether Nicil would respond but after Nicil took the teasing hard by swallowing into his stomach, Schmidt laughed a little and quickly caught up to Kieran, entering the foyer hall.

Behind the two 10 meters tall stone door was a hall that coincided with its grandness.

Wide was not enough to describe the hall but a wide square in a big city was more appropriate.

Tons of stone made chairs spread outwards in all direction from the center of the hall. It didn’t reach the end of the hall but accumulated to 1,111 chairs in total.

One thousand one hundred chairs spread all across the hall and only the remaining eleven were placed in the middle. Among the eleven chairs, a single one was placed in the middle and five each on its left and right side.

No doubt the arrangements of the stone chairs had their own unique pattern and meaning.

The unknown deacon went up to the center but he didn’t sat down, instead he did another please gesture to Kieran.

"Want me to choose instead?" Kieran raised a brow over the eleven chairs in the middle.

Subconsciously, he treated the gesture as a test.

"I suppose that Hugh once sat in one of the eleven chairs right?"

Kieran thought but he didn’t care what the unknown deacon wanted to express and directly chose a stone chair outside of the eleven. The one chair that was outside of the eleven in the center and the most sidelined position among the other thousand and a hundred.

Nicil behind the unknown deacon who also saw the scene opened his eyes wide and facepalmed helplessly.

His actions though attracted the angry gaze from the unknown deacon, which made Nicil bow apologetically.

The unknown deacon didn’t say anything eventually other than a frown, he turned over to Kieran and gave him a smile.

"Praise your return, Holy Knight Sir Hugh!"

He wasn’t being loud nor soft but after echoing throughout the enormous hall, his voice turned sonorous and clear, it sounded like a signal, a signal for the knights-in-reserve outside that has been waiting for a long time to cheer loudly.

"Praise your return, Holy Knight Sir Hugh!"

"Praise your return, Holy Knight Sir Hugh!"

...

One after another, the cheers were like waves, rumbling high and low all over the Sanctuary.

Those Sanctuary members who were waiting for the news quietly finally let out a breath of relief.

It wouldn’t be wrong with the master’s test!

Delight filled each of their hearts.

As for Kieran though, it was the worst day of his life!

When Nicil’s expression changed, Kieran realized something was not right and after that unknown deacon said what he said, Kieran knew he had fallen into the trap.

Hugh’s seat was never within the eleven but coincidentally around where he sat right now.

Still, the unknown deacon used his actions to lead Kieran’s assumption into the trap, altering the unknown into facts.

Kieran knew after that little act, even if he would deny his identity, it would already be useless.

The Sanctuary had acknowledged his identity. In simple words, if the Sanctuary was doubting his identity as Hugh’s reincarnation, now they had completely acknowledge it.

The voice echoed throughout the Sanctuary Island was proof.

"So, it’s just like my friend, Schmit’s expected, the situation with the Sanctuary is that bad? Whether am I the reincarnation of that Holy Knight Hugh, you people will treat me as it right?"

Kieran squinted his eyes and asked in a ridicule way.

The unknown deacon remained silent, all he did was shake his hand and point to Kieran, or more precisely the stone chair that Kieran was sitting on.

"You are saying this chair that I am sitting? What does it..."

Kieran then started to size up the stone chair beneath him as he spoke.

It was normal, nothing out of the blue but when Nicil gave him a hint, Kieran raised his finger to touch the lower part of the handle, his face started to turn weird.

Hugh! His name was carved under the stone chair handle! Kieran was sure after touching it with his finger.

"What kind of tricks are you people playing?"

Kieran stared at the unknown deacon, raising a brow. He never believed in coincidence, the situation that unfolded was obviously some hidden tricks from the Sanctuary or the unknown deacon.

"Hugh carved his name under the handle when he was young. There was only a handful of people who knew this and even for me. I’ve only gotten to know about this this morning, so..."

Nicil said in an odd manner.

"So, you people further your acknowledgement that I am that reincarnation of the Holy Knight? Even more so when I displayed powers similar to Sanctuary Force?"

Kieran raised his right hand and glimmers of white light appeared in his palm.

It was a warming power to the heart, able to calm down one’s heart but it was obviously distinguishable from the Sanctuary Force. It had more energy, liveliness in it than Sanctuary Force had. It didn’t have the imposing, solemn manner and definitely didn’t have the ability to switch between both different energy.

"Now, please take a good look at the difference of the Dawn Force in my hand and the Sanctuary Force!" Kieran said.

"Nicil."

"Yes, sir!

"Take in record that 2567, Hugh’s reincarnation had produced a deviation energy from the Sanctuary Force, naming the Dawn Force. Write it down in the Hall of Legacy, providing the future generations to read up about this!"

"Yes, sir!"

"What the hell, are you people that shameless?"

Schmidt opened his mouth, sounding angry while Kieran felt heavy and still like dead water.

The unknown deacon, however, smiled, looking at Kieran and Schmidt with a warm gaze.

He wasn’t even concerned of Schmidt’s angry loud rant, as if he was asking Schmidt with his expression, "What is shame?".