The Devil’s Cage

At the small square outside St. Reid Hospital, a thick layer of mist appeared suddenly and spread around.

The bright street lamps turned misty and dimmed, making the place look dark.

Even though bright lights were lit up high outside the hospital’s lawn, it looked like a night lamp with low energy. It couldn’t shed any effective light over the area.

The people inside the hospital didn’t notice the commotion going on outside, everyone was minding their own business.

Even when a group of weird men with long robes equipped with swords at their waist passed by the doctors and nurses, no one seemed to notice.

Three of the men from the group walked straight out of the hospital building and the remaining two kneeled before the [Sister Reid Statue], praying softly.

The lively statue suddenly lit up with a buzz under the prayers, glimmering with an inch thick of radiance.

A power beyond regular commoner’s understanding was granted to the other three who walked out instantly.

Simultaneously, the auras of the three started to skyrocket.

”Tsss!”

Kieran gasped when he saw the scene from the shadows.

After he noticed the unusual explosion, he dashed out his ward and reached outside the hospital slightly later than the five men. He was just in time to witness all the prayers and status buffs, it shook Kieran.

If those three men were slightly stronger than regular commoners before and on par with elite soldiers in the army, after the buffs, the three men had exceeded the regular person’s body limit and became similar to the level of a professional fighter.

A simpler example was, a player that had all his stats lingered around E rank and was suddenly boosted up to C rank.

It wasn’t just the leap of rankings but a complete change in terms of qualitative properties.

”Did they used some secret spell to initiate the statue’s power?”

Kieran calmed down quickly as his gaze towards the [Sister Reid Statue] turned odd.

From the description of the [Sister Reid Statue], there wasn’t an attribute about ”Blessing” or anything similar yet the scene before his eyes…

Killing the hen in favor of the eggs

The sudden thought occurred to Kieran. His odd gaze turned even stranger as he watched the scene.

Every special item has its own power, even the lowest tier of Magic rank item was no exception. However, such power wasn’t limitless, not even Legendary items could be exempted from the rule.

That was why the skill cooldown was implemented.

[Mystical Knowledge] did introduce the methods of utilizing overload spells, causing magical items to perform far better than its original state but the cost was the destruction of the item itself.

Although there wasn’t a solid introduction of the method, based on how the men absorbed the power from the statue that exceeded the statue power’s limit was certainly a way on the list of overload spells.

”They ignored the statue itself… Or do they have other ways to repair it?”

Kieran’s doubtful character made him think about how the white-haired elder addressed Sister Reid as Saint. Yet now the men which were obviously from the same side extracted the statue’s power on their own.

It spurred even more doubts in Kieran’s heart because the way they absorbed the power couldn’t be considered as respectful.

It would be more forgivable if they had a method to repair it later but what if they didn’t…

Kieran’s sharp sense picked up another ten plus similar presences to the five men inside the hospital. His mouth corner then lifted up with a cold smile.

However, how could he tell the five men before his eyes and the ten additional presences were on the same side with the white-haired elder from before?

Similar presence couldn’t prove as much but a symbol that was hidden inside their outfit could.

There was a special decorative pattern at the interior of their sleeves. It wasn’t something that could be easily forged because of the faint mystical feeling from it, it was evident that it belonged to a magical origin.

Chang Chang Chang!

Swords were drawn out from their sheaths.

The three men who walked out of the hospital stood in formation and waited for the arrival of their enemy with their swords out.

The mist on the other side was rumbling restlessly as well.

Both sides were on the verge of a fierce battle, Kieran did not want to be a busybody.

He remained in the shadows and looked at the thick mist outside the hospital with deep concentration.

Even with a decreased S+ Intuition, together with [Tracking]’s vision, it was enough for Kieran to easily spot the countless wandering formless souls, poltergeists and evil spirits that were hiding inside the mist.

Still, those were not the things that concerned Kieran the most.

With the [Sister Reid Statue] inside the hospital, despite its power being drawn out, as long as the statue didn’t crumble, none of those dead souls could enter the perimeter.

Therefore, the thing that concerned Kieran the most was the person who was controlling the group of souls.

The reason that person gathered all the souls and evil spirits outside the hospital were definitely not for show and surely the person must have known about the effect of the [Sister Reid Statue].

They wouldn’t have wasted such a great opportunity like this!

That’s right, a great opportunity!

Thinking back to the attacker that infiltrated the Elder Council and the words from the white-haired elder, an obvious fact appeared in Kieran’s heart.

It was a plan to lure the tiger out of the mountains.

The Elder Council wanted to agitate the elder to leave St. Reid Hospital.

The attacker was one of part of the connecting plans but he wasn’t of much use. Even if Kieran killed him, the elder would leave as well.

The Elder Council would have other arrangements to sufficiently stall the elder.

As for what those methods were, Kieran didn’t know but he knew that such arrangement came with a high cost.

After paying the high cost, was such a group of souls just for show?

Kieran didn’t buy any of that.

A moment later…

Kakrooooom!

An engine sound roared loudly and suddenly a huge figure faintly appeared from the thick mist.

Kieran saw the huge figure at first glance and he widened his eyes straightaway.

A tank!

Equipped with a machine gun, main turret, and crawler belt, advancing forward quickly with black smoke trailing its tail.

BOOM! Dak Dak Dak Dak!

The muzzle flash of the turret shined, the machine gun was fired repeatedly.

The three long-robed men armed with swords were dumbstruck when they saw the attack.

The tank’s bombing blasted two of them into bits and created a giant crater in front of the hospital entrance.

The remaining one didn’t even last for another second and was fired into a sieve by the machine gun.

”Hahahahahaha! Marulyn fools! You think this is a hundred years ago? Swords? Don’t make me laugh! It’s the age of firearms now!”

A jerky and hideous laugh sounded irritatedly over the hospital gate tainted with blood.

The laugh belonged to a scrawny elder. There was only skin and bones left on the man, an eerie green light was glowing in that deep eye sockets of his, making him looked like a walking, talking skeleton that was wearing human skin.

Following the scrawny elder’s laugh, the true evil mockery sounded from inside the thick mist.

But moments later all the laughs and mockery halted abruptly.

Even Kieran in the shadows felt a sense of dryness in his throat because…

More than a dozen rocket were raining down from the sky!

All the rockets were fired from the hidden window in the hospital. The rockets with blazing trails were fired directly into the thick mist and at the spot where the scrawny elder was standing.

More than a dozen rockets blasted the spot without mercy.

KABOOOM!

The enormous explosion shook the whole hospital structure but soon calmed down.

The [Sister Reid Statue] even glowed brighter. Not only was the hospital building prevented from harm, but the thick mist outside the hospital also dissipated, leaving almost a dozen incomplete bodies at the scene. They looked terrifying under the moonlight.

The souls and evil spirits were blasted into ashes by the rockets.

The people from Marulyn Church then came out of hiding and gathered at the hospital main hall.

Kieran saw the long-robed men with swords on their waist but were carrying rocket launchers on their shoulder, he couldn’t find a word to describe them.

He felt like he saw the players from the giant city back in the game, all of them didn’t stick to a single pattern.

Kieran slowly retreated.

He didn’t want to be noticed by a dozen rocket launcher wielding men that could be buffed at any minute despite him having met the leader of the group and had a promise with him.

Truth be told, when the member of the Elder Council attacking the hospital was obliterated, Kieran’s cautious and vigilance towards the white-haired elder was raised to new heights.

Possessing mystical power yet he didn’t mind mixing modern weaponry in his arsenal was enough proof that his mind wasn’t old fashioned but an open-minded person.

Looking at the scene, Kieran suspected the elder had purposely stepped into the trap, to take the lure from the Elder Council and also to eliminate all those sent by the Council.

While facing such an elder, despite being on the same side, Kieran wouldn’t let his guard down at all because he wouldn’t know when the elder would treat him as an abandoned pawn.

Similar to the three men standing outside the hospital with their swords drawn after being buffed, without their sacrifice, how could the others from Marulyn Church easily tell the precise location of the attacker in the mist, hence luring the supposed leader of the group of souls and blasting him to hell.

Kieran retreated step by step carefully but at the next moment, he was forced to a sudden halt.

He saw that scrawny elder that should have been blown to bits!

The scrawny elder entered the hospital main hall in his spirit form and ignored the [Protect] from the [Sister Reid Statue]!