The Devil’s Cage

The fire was fierce. The ashes of the remains floated up to the sky together with the raging fire.

Ashes were mixed with sparks as they danced around the pure white moon.

A different kind of beauty was displayed before the people, yet none of them had the heart to admire the scene.

”Put out the fire! Put out the fire!”

Such calls sounded throughout the street. The handles on the wells were rolling non-stop.

Pails and buckets of water were continuously splashed at the blazing grocery shop.

Yet, quenching a fire from a cartload of firewood with one cup of water was a futile attempt.

The fire wasn’t weakened by the effort but instead grew even bigger.

People were forced to push down the wall on both side of the grocery store to isolate the burning in order to minimize their damage, but the two walls were more sturdier and heavier than they had expected.

”A few more men! Hurry! Don’t let the fire spread!”

A prestigious middle-aged man shouted out loud. A couple more young and buffed men ran over to help but it was still useless.

Everyone even clenched their teeth and pushed with all their strength, yet the two walls felt like they were welded on the ground; they didn’t even budge.

”Isolate these two walls, we’ll push the one at the back!” The middle-aged man shouted.

The men hesitated a while but eventually followed as they were ordered.

Although tearing down two perfectly intact houses was not what they were willing to do, they knew if they didn’t do as ordered, the fire would spread throughout the block, the block where they had lived for a long time.

”Move!”

Just when the men took two steps ahead, a loud shout sounded, followed by a violent wind.

The wind was mixed with scorching air; it almost caused everyone to shut their eyes.

The people automatically dodged left and right since they couldn’t see anything.

KABOOOM!

A loud bang entered in their ears and when they opened their eyes, the two sturdy, indestructible wall had collapsed.

People started to cheer when they saw the fire was isolated, in addition to searching for the powerful man who pushed the wall down.

Though, everyone around them were familiar faces or acquaintances; none of them fitted the criteria of the man with unusual strength. Only the middle-aged man had doubts on his face.

”I thought I saw someone rush into the fire… But how is it possible? Must be the heat, I’m seeing things!” The man mocked himself.

...

Flames were dancing wildly, as if the place was the tongue of the devil in hell, and it couldn’t hold back licking and devouring anyone who passed through.

Kieran was walking slowing in the flames.

[Body of Evil] and [Secondary Elemental Damage Resistance] allowed him to completely ignore the fire that was lethal to commoners. In his eyes, the blazing fire were nothing more than a slight breeze blowing on his face.

Kieran lowered his head, searching for the secret room entrance with maximum effort.

That’s right, a secret room!

When Kieran saw that a dozens of men combined their strength and still couldn’t push the wall down, he was sure there was something fishy about the burning house.

If it wasn’t some special contraption built in the rooms, the seemingly old wall wouldn’t be so sturdy. Kieran verified his speculations after helping the civilians kicking the walls down.

Through the transfer of energy, Kieran could clearly feel the two walls still had quite the depth in the ground, far exceeding the space of a common underground basement.

”Got it!”

After a few seconds, with the assurance from before, Kieran soon found the passage leading downwards.

A wooden plank on the floor that was almost burnt to a crisp was the cover of the passage. Not only did it lose the disguising function, it became eye-catching, thus becoming a signal to the underground for anyone who noticed it.

Though, only Kieran could ”see” such a lead, and it was also a mistake of the arsonist!

The arsonist was too confident of the fire. He thought everything would burn to a crisp and disappear from public, but he neglected Kieran’s existence.

Bang!

Kieran kicked away the burning floor plank, jumping into the secret room.

The secret room underground was also engulfed in flames, or it should be where the fire started. The fire from the whole house spread from underground. That was the reason why the fire above couldn’t be extinguished easily.

Under the blazing flames, a couple of burnt corpses were lying there in an intertwined manner. The flames had robbed their original face; the melting and burning of the fat made their body stick together.

Kieran glanced over the body and started to mutter softly.

”After killing the witnesses, they are trying to destroy the evidence?”

It was too easy for Kieran to speculate the scene.

Unless these corpses were having a troubled thought and seeking death, otherwise when the fire started, they should’ve extinguish the fire at the first moment.

The exit of the secret room was not blocked by heavy things, and there were no other things that could prevent their escape.

There was only one explanation for the bodies lying inside the secret room.

They were dead before the fire started. Only then did the killer set the place on fire.

”The Night race had other communication methods?” Kieran wondered.

Kieran was certain that there was one or more Night race monster mixed in that bunch of bounty hunters and mercenaries. In addition, that particular Night monster possessed some long-range communication methods!

Otherwise, with Kieran’s speed, the Night monster among the bounty hunters and mercenaries couldn’t be faster than Kieran in reaching Herl City and delivering the message.

As for the possibility that it was from the attacker behind the monkey-like creature?

There was, but it was next to zero; it shouldn’t even be taken into consideration.

The first attacker’s goal was to hinder the Night race. They or it will surely strike with a vicious method and not by burning the traces after killing the witnesses. It was too much of a hassle for them.

Judging from the methods of the first attackers, they would be more frank and wide in the open, going as far as using an even more horrifying way to threaten the Night race.

”I was too careless! Because of the recent smoothness in progress, I had gotten ahead of myself. How could I miss out on the biggest trait of the Night race!”

Kieran sighed in his heart once more, reminding himself.

He wouldn’t find an excuse for himself. A miss was a miss.

Even though the Night race used the flaws in his mentality, causing him to miss out the clue instinctively, allowing his opponent to take advantage of his flaws was a lesson worth carving in his heart.

Because the Night race’s target would not be someone else every time. The biggest target might be Kieran himself!

Kieran gazed down at the burnt corpses before him once more. He wanted to print the image deep in his heart as a reminder.

However, the diligent size-up had let to some new discovery.

That finger…

Kieran saw the finger of the burnt corpse was straightened. He then took another glance carefully at the fire beside him before heading back up, pretending nothing had happened.

Souuu!

Just as Kieran was halfway up the secret room, the blazing flames beneath him paused abruptly before starting to extend. It turned into a fiery whip as thick as a wrist, lashing towards Kieran mid-air. The tip of the fiery whip was like a sharp blade, stinging towards Kieran’s throat.

The attacker had been waiting for this particular strike for a long time which he had the most confident in. The attacker gave his all without holding back, yet the fiery whip strike missed its target.