The Devil's Cage

"Are you suspecting me?"

The Funeral Society member pointed at himself, crying out in shock.

Kieran didn’t acknowledge nor deny, just that his eyes weren’t moving away from Lee.

Lee instantly showed a bitter smile.

"I swear I don’t know what course this Fiend Hunter took to reach Saint Brilliant! To be honest, when I send out a request for reinforcements, HQ would deploy someone at random to accept the task. Other than some higher authorities in HQ, the others wouldn’t know what kind of route the support would take, and even though the Jar of Sealing Fiends is precious to the higher authorities, they wouldn’t go as far as betraying one of their own."

Lee explained quickly.

It was not the first time Lee came across hot-headed huntsman who moved before thinking, even though Kieran didn’t strike him as one, he would not want to risk his chance with him.

"Humph! Because there aren’t enough benefits!" The elder inspector coldly grunted beside.

Oaker couldn’t hold back his rage anymore after seeing his colleagues dead and such rage affected his emotions directly.

Though, neither Kieran or Lee expressed their understanding, while Kieran really understood how Oaker felt, he wasn’t sure about Lee, at least Lee looked like he was sorry for the incident as well.

"Please trust me!" Lee looked at Kieran, begging him.

"I shall reserve my opinion," Kieran said before turning to the inspector.

Lee was instantly relieved, he knew that he wouldn’t be in harm’s way for the time being, though his ears stood up right away after he heard what Kieran said next.

"How was it? Any changes to the place when you left?" Kieran asked.

"Changes? Does flipping over my men count? When I left this place, there were still six of my men here, including one fresh graduate from the academy, a young lad who addressed me as his mentor and the young lass from forensics who was supposed to get married next week! Now? Every one of them was killed! That bastard, I’ll let him regret that he ever lived when I find him!" Inspector Oaker cried angrily.

"Trust me, I share the same feeling, wanting to let that murderer regret that he ever walked this earth. That is why we must make our move now."

Kieran then turned back to Lee, signaling him.

Lee who had just released a breath of relief went breathless again.

"Yes, sir?" Lee carefully asked what Kieran wanted of him.

"I want you to contact Funeral Society HQ again, request another backup or supporter to be deployed," Kieran said slowly.

"But, I’ve sent out a special investigation assist request..."

"This is the chance to prove yourself." Kieran interrupted Lee, his calm face didn’t change at all but his eyes had another layer of fierceness in them.

Lee quivered before the fierce eyes, he then clenched his teeth and said with a stutter, "V-Very Well! I’ll try my best!"

Lee finished his sentence and went straight beside the car, using his covert methods to contact Funeral Society HQ.

"I don’t believe him!" The elderly inspector said while looking at Lee’s back.

Kieran didn’t comment anymore on the matter because he couldn’t even trust the inspector himself.

Still, regardless of his disbelief, Kieran wouldn’t mind the inspector participating in his upcoming plans.

...

"Why are we finding more troubles with other fiends? You think they are involved in this incident?"

Inspector Oaker was puzzled, walking out of the station’s file archive room and looked at Kieran who was leaning on the wall. Still, he passed the files loaded in a bag to Kieran.

"These are the files of the mysterious murder cases and missing links that happened in the few street blocks you requested. Are you sure it’s useful?" The inspector was still hesitant about Kieran’s move.

"Of course! I can assure you, this is much more useful than you think. It will give you the results you want and the rewards that I seek." Kieran nodded in an affirmative manner.

It wasn’t really lying though. Kieran indeed had a general idea of who the killer was that killed the Fiend Hunter from the Funeral Society HQ. The clues lying around were very obvious.

Yet, obvious clues always meant surprises, so Kieran went to extra lengths to minimize the possibilities of any surprises. He didn’t want to involve himself in the plan, all he needed to do was wait patiently but he didn’t want to waste time while waiting for his plan to take effect.

Therefore, the negative energy that he sensed on the way to the station had provided him with an alternative.

It would be able to confuse the others and be able to give him more rewards that he required.

"Let’s hope so!" Inspector Oaker said after a deep breath while looking at Kieran going through the files as he walked down the corridor.

Compared to the odd Funeral Society member, the inspector was willing to lean more towards to Kieran in terms of trust, even though Kieran struck him as a couple more times dangerous than the former because he couldn’t get any disgusting presence or aura from Kieran.

...

The commercial street block in its every merry and prosperous state.

Crowds were flowing like a rapid current, the shops were filled with a vast variety of goods. Even after the sunset, the place was covered with colorful neon lights.

Yet after turning into a certain back alley, darkness appeared.

The prosperous and loud streets were carried by the night breeze into the back alley yet it didn’t bring the liveliness with it, on the contrary, it made the back alley even more quiet with an extra layer of eeriness.

Kieran slowly made his way into the back alley.

Fuuuu!

A certain night breeze was blown over, bringing a gloomy and cold presence to his face but it scattered away before it really touched Kieran.

Even with his usual sight, A+ Intuition still picked up vague, blurry figures in the dark and those figures were exposed under the light with [Tracking] activated.

They had translucent bodies, some without heads, some without legs and many of them had their gut ripped open. All sorts of organs were oozing out from their stomach, leaving a bloody trail behind.

A faint vile stench spread across the whole back alley as they appeared.

Wandering souls! Mixed with a decent amount of evil spirits!

But the wandering souls and the evil spirits didn’t even approach Kieran yet they started to back off.

Kieran who was giving out an unusual presence looked very terrifying to the souls and spirits, but to a certain other existence, it was a lethal temptation.

Kak, Kak, Ka!

The leveled ground started to tremble lightly, and the magnitude surged up within a breath like a real earthquake.

Then, a red hand burst out from the ground.

Bam!

Its palm was as big as a door plank and the hairs on its hand was sharp like barbs. It pressed down to the ground, dragging the rest of its body out of the ground. The chilly presence of the hand was enough to send shivers down one’s spine but compared to the body that appeared later, the hand wasn’t that terrifying anymore.

A 3-meter tall body with robust, strong limbs, yet it didn’t have a head on top. Its big belly was filled with countless hairs similar to the mouth of an insect.

Gak Tss, Gak Tsk!

The disgusting hair was opening and closing relentlessly, revealing countless more small teeth underneath.

Kieran clearly saw the hidden teeth but his attention wasn’t focused on the monster but most of it was placed on the rooftop on the other side.

A black bird was standing there, glaring at Kieran with its yellow eyes.

"As expected!"

Kieran smiled coldly in his heart.

The giant fiend though charged towards Kieran, eager to devour him.