The Devil’s Cage

Kieran felt like he was drowning in pain when he woke up. He helplessly took in a cold breath, but he stopped before he could swallow it.

He had noticed the creature above his head.

”Illusion!” he immediately thought when he saw the twisted, demented creature.

However, the tubes coming out of the creature’s mouth were connected to his body, wriggling from time to time, thus showing Kieran that it was all real.

There was also the rainbow crystal that was wedged inside his heart.

The excruciating pain from the wound told him that he was not hallucinating either.

”What the hell happened?”

Kieran unconsciously looked at his battlelog.

[Eye of Chimeras, Hint: Spirit has failed authentication, Creature of Desire has appeared…]

[Creature of Desire, Fear: Spirit has failed authentication, devouring in process…]

[Devouring interrupted…]

[Conversion starting…]

[Conversion interrupted by Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art...]

[Eye of the Chimeras, Stabbing: Lethal Attack, Inflicts 500 Damage to your HP, Tessirot Blessing available, Tessirot Blessing activated, 300 True Damage inflicted to your HP…]

[Eye of the Chimeras, Suction: Constitution failed authentication, -1 HP per second…]

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art, Knight’s Focus: 200 HP ignited, Eye of the Chimeras, Hint and Creature of Desire, Fear Debuff removed…]

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art: Knight’s Focus, Baptism of Desire changed through concentration…]

...

The battlelog notifications before Kieran only mentioned a part of what he had been through, but it was enough for him to know what was going on.

Kieran could not help but take a cold breath.

He’d only had to take a glance at [Eye of Chimeras] to be induced with the [Hint] debuff and fall into extreme disadvantage. If it was not for the accidents during the process and the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art, Knight’s Focus], Kieran would have been a dead man.

[Knight’s Focus: Everyone has their own specialty, but not everyone can persevere; Spirit +1, Knight’s Persistence (When you persist regarding something, you are willing to sacrifice yourself in order to succeed; 200 HP ignited, +2 Levels in Spirit, duration: 1 second, no cooldown)]

After a quick glance at the newly-changed [Knight’s Focus], Kieran shifted his attention to his HP, which was less than 100 and still going down every second.

Instinctively, Kieran activated the [Scale of Blessing].

Although [Tessirot’s Blessing] was already activated, its rarity had dropped by a rank and its defense was totally gone. The attribute [Scale of Blessing] was still active though.

Rock-layered skin started to form on Kieran’s body, and his HP, which had been as low as 70, instantly recovered to 270 thanks to the [Medium Healing] effect.

Although his HP was still gradually decreasing, at least he could stop worrying about it for the time being.

Kieran let out a sigh of relief. His life had been hanging by a thread...

However, what happened right after shocked Kieran and everyone else present.

The rock-layered skin spread all over Kieran’s body, covering the Eye of Chimeras, which was still wedged inside his chest, in the process. When the rock-layered skin came into contact with the Eye of the Chimeras, the crystal started to shake violently.

A dazzling, rainbow-like shine burst out of the crystal, repelling the rock-layered skin created by the [Scale of Blessing].

Kieran felt the energy from the crystal start to inoculate into his body again, this time in a more direct way than before. The energy wanted to twist his senses and his very soul.

”The Hint!”

Kieran immediately thought of the debuff from earlier and the outcome of such an inoculation.

He would die or get turned into a Night Monster!

No matter which one it was, it was not what Kieran desired.

When he looked at the Creature of Desire above his head, he saw that it was wriggling eagerly, waiting to devour him. Without a second’s hesitation, Kieran opened his character window, selected his Golden Attribute Points and boosted his Spirit.

[Golden Attribute Point used…]

[Spirit: D → D+]

[Golden Attribute Point used…]

[Spirit: D+ → C-]

[Golden Attribute Point used…]

[Spirit: C- → C]

...

A triple level-up at once. When the energy could not affect him anymore, Kieran stopped upgrading his stats.

He looked at the Creature of Desire above his head again. The wriggling motion had stopped, and the creature had become tame all of a sudden. It had not disappeared completely though.

”Is it because of the dazzling shine of the Eye of Chimeras?”

Kieran tilted his head down, looking at the crystal inside his chest.

The rainbow-like shine was getting more and more dazzling. It had started to hurt Kieran’s eyes, so he instinctively turned away from it.

When he turned away, he could not see the force repelled by the shine of the Eye of Chimeras make a comeback.

The other spiritual conscience that resided inside [Tessirot’s Blessing] was Tessirot itself.

The primordial existence was growling loudly at the Eye of the Chimeras, which had challenged its power. The spirit of Tessirot launched a fearless attack towards the outsider and the power of the crystal.

The rock-layered skin that covered other parts of Kieran’s body started to stir up bubbles like hot, boiling water.

The skin left his body parts and gathered together. It formed a black, fist-sized, lustrous rock outside and threw itself hard against the Eye of the Chimeras.

The Eye of the Chimeras started shaking even more violently.

The wound on Kieran’s chest was getting bigger and bigger. Suddenly, blood gushed out, especially around the area of his heart.

Kieran staggered and fell on the floor as his wound got more and more severe.

The Creature of Desire formed within Kieran’s inner conscience extended its parts, blocking the black rock and preventing it from crashing against the Eye of Chimeras.

As the creature’s body tried to block the trajectory of the lustrous rock, it was instantly pierced through, causing its hundreds of thousands of intertwining arms and legs to burst into bits and pieces.

Its giant chainsaw-like mouth was crushed into ashes. All that was left were the eyes that had formed, floating outside in mid-air.

The eyes instantly turned red and let out a rainbow-like shine as it attached itself to the surface of the crystal, resisting the primordial force.

The rainbow-like shine suddenly turned into mini arrows, which were fired at the black lustrous rock. The rock did not know how to avoid them.

Layers of rocks were scraped off arrow by arrow. When the black stone reached Kieran’s chest, it had been reduced to a red date’s size rather than the fistful it had been before.

That was still enough though.

Bang!

The black rock collided hard with the Eye of the Chimeras.

Following the collision, cracks spread like spider webs on the crystal.

The Eye of Chimeras was finally splintered.

The splintered crystal shards fell out and started to float around Kieran’s chest.

The lustrous black rock launched its final strike against the crystal and turned into a normal stone, falling to the ground. Kieran’s [Tessirot’s Blessing] also fell to the ground when its essence was gone.

Without the primordial spirit imbued in it, the armor started to crumble and rot at exponential speed. The cowhide straps were the first to break.

After [Tessirot’s Blessing] fell, Kieran was completely bare on top. The wound on his chest was still gushing out blood.

The crystal shards from the Eye of the Chimeras also fell to the ground, soaking in Kieran’s blood.

They started to melt and fuse with the blood at a speed visible to the naked eye.

”NOOOO!” Bartos screamed in shock from afar.