The Devil’s Cage

Despair was smeared all over the phantom’s face.

It didn’t calculate Kieran’s speed beforehand, similar to how it miscalculated Kieran’s ability to expose it as an imposter.

Still, the phantom wouldn’t just sit back and wait for its demise.

“You think you’ve won?”

The phantom screeched fiercely and charged at Kieran with its blazing body after breaking free.

Kieran was able to easily dodge the charged attack. [Interrogator Knife] was slashed out along the motion as well.

Sou!

The knife glared like a crescent moon in the night under the brightness of the flames. It directly slashed over the phantom’s body and an excruciating wail of pain followed.

While the phantom was drowning in its wails, the cold glare returned and slashed its body again.

Kieran’s [Interrogator Knife] was like a sparrow diving through the storm, not only fast but agile as well.

With Grandmaster [Sharp Weapon, Dagger] and [Evading] at the same rank, it was enough for Kieran to dodge all the attacks from the phantom and also land all his strikes precisely regardless how the phantom evaded.

The process went on for a second time, and a third, and a fourth…

Kieran was wielding [Interrogator Knife] in his right hand and was producing layers of afterimages in its movement trails. As the furious attacks landed, the phantom’s body, which was weakened by the explosion and fire, swiftly disintegrated.

Soon enough, its illusive body was thin as fog.

“I’ll take you down with me!”

The phantom stopped its attack suddenly.

A fierce energy wave then appeared on its fading body but when [Interrogator Knife] slashed over its body rapidly multiple times again, the phantom’s aura froze completely.

Bak!

The phantom then exploded like a balloon, the dense negative energy quickly disperse after its body vanished.

A small spot of dazzling white radiance fell off the air. It wasn’t free-falling but it was flying in its trajectory, heading towards the broken statue.

However, the broken statue couldn’t bear any of the radiance anymore, just as the radiating spot touched the statue, it rapidly multiplied from one to ten thousand. The narrow secret room was instantly filled with the radiating spots.

Kieran who was in the room himself was also showered by the white radiating spots.

Before Kieran could react to what happened, the radiating spots swiftly melted when it touched him like a melting snowflake

However, it didn’t fall on the ground like the snowflake but instead, it infused itself into Kieran’s body.

The unusual warmth filled Kieran’s body in an instant!

Kieran who kept the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] running in his body suddenly felt the acceleration in his body.

“Could it be?”

The accelerating [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] caused an impulsive thought in Kieran’s mind.

Then, he started to chase after the radiating spots like a madman.

Each radiating spot he touched was automatically infused into his body and the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] would run even faster.

When almost half of the radiating spots were captured and infused into his body, the system notifications arrived.

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art has infused a corresponding energy…]

[Infusement successful, limit breaking the initial limits, -1 debuff has been elevated…]

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art has recovered to Musou level…]

Fuuu!

An explosive air burst out instantly from Kieran and swept around the room in all directions, whipping up powerful roars comparable to a cyclone.

As Kieran breathed, Dawn Force appeared on his hands and body and it was different from the previous experience where he would need to get prepared, now all he needed was a thought to bring out the Dawn Force.

The feeling felt like when water flowed, a channel was formed.

No! It felt even more natural than that!

After being sealed once and reappearing again, Dawn Force was more energetic and lively, making Kieran feel like Dawn Force itself had become his own arms.

It wasn’t him over thinking but a real authentic presence.

Under [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]’s special effect, a third effect had appeared.

[Dawn Sword: When you can truly utilize the Dawn Force, it means that you are truly a Knight of Dawn, despite the way you utilize it being one-of-a-kind. Charge Dawn Force for 3 seconds, consume 600 Stamina to fire out a 15-meter, Extreme attack power light sword, doesn’t have cooldown]

Following the new effect being added, the related knowledge started to appear in Kieran’s mind and the warm energy representing the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] ran even faster.

The familiar knowledge transfer and synchronization process happened again.

But, this time around it was different, as the synchronization process began, Dawn Force was spinning rapidly in his body as if it formed a vortex inside.

The radiating spots that lingered in the room weres sucked in and infused into Kieran’s body.

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art has infused a corresponding energy…]

[Musou level Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art has acquired significant experience through training, level cost has been decreased by 1000 Points…]

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art has infused a corresponding energy…]

[Musou level Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art has acquired significant experience through training, level cost has been decreased by 1000 Points…]

…

The notifications spammed his vision relentlessly and it didn’t seem to stop anytime soon.

When the last radiating spot was sucked into Kieran’s body, the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] which had required 300K Points and 30 Golden Skill Points to reach Transcendence level had been discounted to 250K Points and 25 Golden Skill Points.

In simple words, that wave of radiating spots was worth around 50K Points and 5 Golden Skill Points and if he counted the part where the sealed was removed, it actually worth 100K Points and 10 Golden Skill Points.

“This is the biggest reward!”

Kieran took in a deep breath and looked at the shattered [Sister Reid Statue] in shock.

The system had tagged the statue with a Damaged status, it has no further use anymore but a realization rose up in Kieran’s heart.

“Damien of the Twenty Hounds must have discovered the phantom residing in the statue, that is why he risked so much to infiltrate St. Reid Hospital. Since the beginning, his goal was after the phantom inside the statue, whether it was studying the Marulyn Church or the preparation to disguise himself as Gannett, it was all done to “fish” out the phantom within!”

“Damien wasn’t after Marulyn’s legacy at all, even all the other people didn’t think Marulyn would possess any legacies. There wasn’t any presentable weapon or defensive armor inside the room which was an obvious move from the late Chief Friar because if the mystical individuals back then didn’t find any weapon or armor inside the room, it will lead them to think that Marulyn Church had saved something up their sleeves. That was the reason why the secret room stored a scroll and consumable items.”

“But… Why would a Legendary item that could “protect” an entire building gave birth to that demon-like phantom?”

Kieran squinted his eyes. More guesses emerged from his heart but he needed more evidence to support his guesses and obviously, it wasn’t possible in the room.

He turned around and squinted, he jumped into the exit that appeared beneath the statue.

Kieran knew it would be another sleepless night for him.