The Devil's Cage

Fooosh!

The black monster threw itself towards Weapon Master, and accompanied by a violent wind, its tall and large body looked like a three-storey building falling down.

Without a second thought, Weapon Master chose to disengage but he wasn’t able to, for he missed his first step backwards.

The ground beneath his feet became empty as a giant hole opened up without his knowledge.

The dark and cold aura gushed out like a geyser, freezing the falling Weapon Master.

...

“Weapon Master!?”

Fortress was stunned on the spot as he watched Weapon Master disappear. He instinctively activated his translucent defensive barrier and covered himself and Kat Lady. Despite the effort to put up a barrier, it did not change his outcome for the better.

Fortress vanished the next moment as well.

“Meow, meow, meow!”

Kat Lady dashed towards Kieran as she meowed repeatedly.

Her cat instinct told her being around Kieran would be the safest, and her instinct proved correct.

When she ran towards Kieran, she clearly felt that invisible, terrifying power rapidly fading away, and when she was right beside Kieran, the power disappeared without a sign.

“Safe... Meow meow meow!”

Before she finished, Kieran suddenly grabbed her from the back of her neck and threw her away.

Kat Lady meowed out of shock and pain as she fell on the ground.

“What did you do that for meow?”

Kat Lady jumped up and confronted Kieran.

Kieran took a glance at Kat Lady and had zero intention of replying, continuing to look down at the burning ground beneath his feet.

He raised his hand and the Devil Flame burned once more.

Before Kat Lady could meow a second time, she too vanished.

...

“Tasty! Tasty food one after another!”

A strange laugh echoed in the darkest spot, a figure completely merged with the shadow was swallowing its saliva as it looked at the row of captives on the ground: Drexton, the Knight, the Machinist, Weapon Master, Fortress, and Kat Lady.

However, it did not eat his ‘food’ just yet because there was one more on the surface.

Through the layers of dark mist, it saw the prey in black.

It deemed the prey in black was the tastiest.

“Struggle! Fear! Once fear catches you, you won’t be able to escape!”

It muttered softly and waved its hand.

A Drexton was created back on the surface.

This copy shared the exact same look, comparable presence, and had strikingly similar characteristics. One could consider the Drexton a perfect replica.

According to its script, the Drexton that it created will be the important lure to trigger the prey in black. It wanted its prey in black to see how it crushed the Drexton it created... Huh?!

What happened?

The prey in black attacked the Drexton it created without a second thought?

The Drexton it created was burnt to cinders?

What? How come?

The prey in black noticed some flaws?

No! Impossible!

The copy should be a perfect one, no one should be able to tell apart the real and the copy!

A coincidence! It must be a coincidence.

The strange being waved its hand again and another Drexton was created back on the surface.

It believed this time, it should be fi-

What?!

How did it get burned again?

What happened?

The strange being started to doubt its plan.

Back on the surface, Kieran squinted his eyes and looked down at that exact spot. Through the mist, the strange being caught Kieran’s gaze as though Kieran had seen through the ground and spotted itself.

‘Impossible! How could this happen?

I am underground! More than a hundred meters underground!

How could he spot me?’

The strange being shook its head repeatedly, not believing that Kieran could spot it through the ground.

Suddenly, Kieran’s figure vanished.

‘What? Where did he go?’

The strange being was shocked.

Without further ado, it used its ability to search for the black figure but after scanning all of Smorewill Street, it found nothing.

‘He escaped?’

The thought bloomed in the strange being’s head, causing it to sigh in regret.

“What tasty food, I thought I could nibble through his flesh.”

“Is that so?”

“It is, although he is far away now. I still can smell him, as if he is beside... WAIT! HOW DID YOU COME DOWN HERE?!”

The strange being answered the question naturally but it realized something was wrong halfway through.

The strange being turned around instinctively and saw the figure behind it through the darkness. It was terrified.

It screamed out of disbelief but that was soon replaced by a painful groan.

Devil Flame engulfed the strange being.

The blazing flame burned the strange being’s body and the light from the flames shone through the dark underground.

The underground was actually a wide hall, equipped with stone tables, chairs, stairs, and candlesticks; there were rotten taperies on the walls and some incomplete murals on the ceiling.

The green being, who looked like a giant lizard, was rolling on the ground endlessly but Devil Flame could not be extinguished through common means.

When its green skin was charred black, the strange lizard-like being finally reacted to the situation, raising its short and tiny hands and waving them in the air.

A layer of supernatural darkness appeared.

The cold and dark supernatural darkness enveloped the lizard-being and extinguished the Devil Flame on its body.

“Food, you’ve infuriated me! I’ll let you understand... Aaaaargh!”

The strange lizard-being crawled up from the ground and shouted at Kieran but before he could finish, Devil Flame burned his body again.

The strange lizard-being screamed out of pain again but this time, it became smarter as it quickly conjured the supernatural darkness.

The supernatural darkness covered its body once again like the rising tide but a big mouth appeared within the conjured darkness.

Despite the darkness, the big mouth kept sucking as though a whale was eating. A portion of the darkness managed to escape the big mouth and covered the lizard-like being’s body. The Devil Flame was extinguished amidst the scorching pain.

“Food, you have no idea who you are dealing with! Such little tricks are useless against me for a second ti-... Aaaaargh!”

The agonizing scream sounded again for Devil Flame burned its body once again.

Again, without further thought, the strange lizard-like being conjured the darkness but the big mouth appeared again and sucked away a big portion of the darkness, leaving only a little for the strange being to kill the fire.

The process repeated for more than a dozen times, until the strange being started to feel tired.

It seemed like conjuring those darkness wasn’t as easy as it looked. The more it conjured, the bigger the exhaustion to its body because the darkness was limited.

When the strange being used every bit of its strength to conjure one last time, Drexton, who was unconscious on the ground, finally moved his fingers.

Without the suppression from the darkness, waking up was only a matter of time for the Fist of Justice.

It was then that the strange being finally realized what Kieran was doing.

“You purposely stall so you can devour all the Dark Gold?! Aaaargh! Get away from me! What monster is this! Get off me!”

It was already too late.

The strange being’s fate was sealed when Gluttony had his eyes on it, loosing the ability to resist and chomped down mouth after mouth.

Touching his stomach, Gluttony looked disgusted.

The darkness that he sucked on earlier was delicious, tasting like rich cocoa but the green monster was bad, like bad pao with a foul texture. When compared to the darkness, it further enlarged the disgusting taste, but Gluttony ate it nonetheless.

His nature had determined that he could never waste food, even if it was bad.

Through his stomach, Gluttony started to digest the food he just ate and distribute the energy to his brothers and the other four guys.

At first he wasn’t used to the job but he’d never disobey his elder brother’s orders because his elder brother was the root of them all.

Kieran felt the five Origin Forces in his body operate quicker as he received the energy, squinting his eyes in a pleasant way.

The supernatural darkness was a little out of his expectation.

Although he knew the darkness would be tasty at first glance due to the overflowing saliva, he’d never thought the supernatural darkness was comparable to a Proper Meal class food, which was able to boost all five of his Origin Forces with almost 2 years of cultivation.

“What is that supernatural darkness?” Kieran wondered.

Drexton had woken up after Kieran defeated the green monster.

“2567? I still had to trouble you in the end.”

Drexton saw Kieran when he opened his eyes, slightly stunned before he quickly understood the situation, hence the bitter smile.

“It’s nothing,” Kieran replied softly, his eyes starting to scan the surroundings, especially the incomplete murals on the ceiling.

He hoped to find something on the supernatural darkness.

Drexton then woke up his comrades, one after another, and soon everyone was awake.

All of them looked at each other in confusion, bedazzled by the short memory lost.

“Is it an illusion?” Machinist muttered.

“Not just a simple illusion, it should be some kind of secret spell or technique. Rumour has it, during the papal era, some interrogators who served religion mastered these kinds of skills and anyone who faced them with fear in their heart had their life ripped away,” the Knight answered after a glance at the surroundings.

“But that’s during the papal era, now... So these are historical remains from the papal era?” Fortress said out of instinct but he reacted to the situation before he finished and sized up the surroundings in surprise.

“I guess so. Other than the papal era, I can’t relate those murals to anything else,” the Knight pointed at the murals at the ceiling.

Machinist then opened his backpack and took out many tiny lighting devices. The devices were tiny but strong enough to light up the place when installed around the hall.

The whole hall was lit up right away.

It was a semicircle hall with a flight of stairs leading upstairs on the circular end and three more flights of stairs at the horizontal end leading downstairs; the wooden doors on both ends were already rotten beyond recognition.

The Machinist didn’t stop there. Four more scouting robots were brought out;, and with his control, the four robots moved through the stairs.

Soon, the robot from one of the three stairs leading downstairs transmitted its footage back.

All three of the stairs leading downstairs converged at the end and were connected to a bigger hall deeper down the ground. However, when the Machinist saw the scene from the second hall, his face turned pale.

The footage showed nothing but bones!

Gasp!

“There are at least ten thousand dead here!”

Fortress, who glued his eyes to the screen, gasped hard.

“Em, at least,” Machinist nodded with lan ugly look because the stairs leading up was a dead end. It wasn’t blocked but when this underground structure was built, a big house was built on top of the stairs.

There was also good news accompanying the bad one.

Another flight of stairs was discovered in the hall of bones leading upwards.

“Don’t tell me we have to walk through these bones,” Fortress asked in a pale look.

“Do you have any other suggestions?” Machinist asked back.

“It’s just a pile of dead bones, what’s so scary about that meow?”

Kat Lady laughed at Fortress with her arms crossed, but promptly after that, her ears moved as she picked up some soft rustling noise.

“Did you guys hear that meow?” Kat Lady asked.

“Yeah, it sounds like bones moving,” Weapon Master answered as he tried his best to listen. He then drew out his rod.

“Moving bones meow?” Kat Lady was terrified by the answer, looking nothing like a superhero after hearing the answer.

Of course she wasn’t afraid of a pile of bones, but what if there were tens of thousands?

She would drown within seconds.

Moreover, this place was a historical site from the papal era, the moving skeletons must be something unusual.

Kat Lady looked right and left, spotting Drexton and wanting to lean over but when she remembered Drexton was also captured and was knocked out, Kat Lady subconsciously moved towards Kieran. Kat Lady believed strongly that staying around Kieran would be the safest.

Although he threw her away earlier, it was probably some misunderstanding!

It would not happen again!

“If you let me stay around you, I’ll let you pat my head meow!” Kat Lady said to Kieran.

Kieran looked at Kat Lady, grabbing her without saying anything, and threw her aside.

He had to memorize the murals on the ceiling, not waste time petting cats.

The murals will be destroyed later.

“Machinist, can your robot record the murals?” Kieran asked for the sake of insurance.

“Yes.”

“Record it down for me.”

“Sure.”

Since Kieran saved him before and was absurdly powerful, Machinist nodded to his request without knowing the reason behind it.

Machines record things faster than human eyes. Machinist managed to record all the murals 10 seconds later. At the same time, the bone rattling noise got closer.

Drexton and co. prepared to engage the incoming skeletons.

Kieran, on the other hand, received the recording footage, checking it and nodding in satisfaction. He then looked at everyone else and said, “Everyone, ready to get out of here?”

Drexton and co. looked at Kieran in surprise.

Under their confused gaze, Kieran lifted up his feather mantle with his left hand.

The feathers fluttered and revealed a pitch black sword hilt underneath.

Kieran held the hilt tightly with his right hand and drew the sword.

Chang!

The sword was drawn and slashed.

The black moving light burst and flew up to the ceiling.

The ground, which was a hundred meters thick, got ripped apart like paper. Sunlight shone through the breach as ruble fell and landed on the black figure.

A layer of glint covered the black feather mantle, as if it was shining on its own.

It felt tensile and dazzling.

Kak!

Kieran sheathed his sword.