The Devil’s Cage

Dang!

Dang! Dang!

On the walls of Golden City, alarming smokes rose up to the sky, while the giant bell in the central square was rung repeatedly.

The slave traffickers, smugglers, robbers, and bandits that gathered in the city raised their heads in shock.

They couldn’t understand what kind of danger could send Golden City into such an alarmed state as if the city had met its greatest enemy.

One needed to know, on this land, even Burning Dawn couldn’t shake the sturdy position of Golden City.

For a hundred years, Golden City relied on force to build its prestigious name. It had far overtaken the Burning Dawn from a hundred years ago, or should it be…

With some intentional individual’s arrangement, those who came to Golden City now had forgotten a hundred years ago, Golden City was just a sentry camp for Burning Dawn.

“Is it related to the fireworks just now?”

“That devil head?”

“Is it the Burning Family?”

“Can the Burning Family still leave Dawn City? Don’t be ridiculous!”

“The king wished that he can tie both the Burning and the Dawn Family beside his feet like dogs.”

….

The discussion ended in laughter but the laughter was halted abruptly at the very next moment.

They saw Kieran in the sky.

Devil Kieran was flying in the sky. As his blazing eyes glanced over the whole Golden City, [Flame Blast] that was boosted again was smashed down like a blazing pillar that pierced the heaven.

Golden City’s walls were known as the most sturdy and tallest of all yet they were smashed like tofu by the fiery attack. Together with the walls, the archer tower behind it and the soldiers were turned to ash upon impact.

Then, the people inside the city finally saw what caused the smoke signals and the alarm bell.

The dead! An army of the dead without boundaries!

When the people saw the soul flame in the eyes of the dead, quiet yet burning strongly, they shuddered.

“Guards! Guards!”

Some couldn’t help but called out to the guards while a lot more of them drew their swords.

Those who did business in Golden City weren’t any morally sound people, whether it was the slave traffickers, the smugglers, or the robbers and bandits, all of them had quite the fighting capabilities.

Unfortunately, the dead they encountered weren’t the normal dead but were originally the soldiers of Golden City and more importantly, after being revived into devil slaves, the dead had many different kinds of enhancements.

Bang!

A big buff bandit slashed his sword at the one of the devil slaves’ neck.

Since the bandit made a living around Supreme Road, he was aware that the dead might look scary but in fact, they had a lot of weaknesses, other than fire and lightning attacks, the most effective thing to do was was to cut their heads off.

Therefore, the bandit did it but the outcome was out of his expectations.

His sword precisely landed on the dead’s neck but he felt like he struck tough leather.

The neck was supposed to be the weak spot of the dead but now, it was as tensile as a cowhide.

After the slashing sword sunk almost half a finger deep into the dead’s neck, it couldn’t move anymore.

Perhaps for any commoner, having a half a finger deep slash wound on their neck would be fatal but for the dead, it was barely a scratch as it didn’t hurt or itch.

Under the shocking gaze of the bandit, the sword that the dead wielded was driven through his chest.

Hot blood was splashed on the devil slave’s face. The unfamiliar scent together with the familiar feeling made the soul fire in the devil slave’s eyes burn brighter.

Roar!

A heavy and loud beastly roar came from the dead’s chest.

The devil slave got stronger. While its strength was mixed with the hatred towards the living, the strengthening was no doubt catastrophic to the living.

Just when the people inside Golden City realized the dead before their eyes were uncommon, they suddenly realized again, the dead grew stronger through killing!”

“What kind of ghost is this?”

“How the hell did this happen?”

“That damn devil!”

“Is this the Lord of the Dead?”

The messy voices didn’t change the current situation at all.

The army of the dead easily crushed the first line of defense of the hastily put together army with a destructive force.

On top of that, the second defense line was completely destroyed without having much use.

The people in the city then realized, when they were holding off the army of the dead from invading the city, the guards that were supposed to guard the city were nowhere to be found.

The realization caused the people to crumble instantly. These evil-doers weren’t people with strong wills and convictions.

On the contrary, they were more skilled in fishing in troubled waters and other similar evil deeds.

Now, the ruler of Golden City wanted to use them as a shield to block the arrows; none of them wanted to.

The group that might still have been able to hold on for a while longer crumbled after the realization hit them.

All of them used their own ways to escape from the city.

Some of the bolder ones ran towards the deeper part of Golden City.

As for why? The answer was self-explanatory.

The slave-traffickers, smugglers, robbers, and bandits escaped, but their goods stayed.

The slaves, on the other hand, looked at each other as the dead beings moved away from them in a hurry; they were at loss of what to do.

In the end, the slaves looked at Kieran floating in the sky.

“You are all free now! Whether you want it or not, dare to or not, you’re all free! If you miss your despicable days, you can wait here for your master in panic but if you want to welcome a new life, pick up the swords, follow my army and grasp the life you wanted with the sword in your hand!”

Kieran’s voice sounded like a blast of thunder, echoing in the slaves’ ears heavily.

Some were in a trance, some were lost.

Some stood up and went up before the goods the smugglers left behind and pick something they could carry.

When there was a leader, others will follow.

Who was willing to be sold off like goods?

Who was willing to be treated even lower than animals?

Who was willing to live under the whims of others with their lives not being their own?

Now, they had hope to leave their slave lives behind, no one will be willing to stay!

Rebellion!

Rebellion!

Rebellion!

All for the sake of freedom!

The call of rebellion sounded from the slaves, a strong young man then took the sword beside him and followed the army of the dead, charging towards his previous master.

Behind him was a bunch of other slaves, following him into battle with loud roars.

The army of dead was already unstoppable and now with the living behind them, it was like granting a tiger a pair of wings.

The indomitable force pushed directly into the deeper parts of Golden City.

Inside there was a temple that looked more like a palace.

The reason why it was a temple because there was a divine statue, an iron divine statue that was blurry, weird and unable to fully describe with words.

The divine statue could be considered as a single entity or a group of entities, it didn’t even have a fixed form but it was terrifying enough.

There was a sea of bodies in front of the divine statue.

The guards of Golden City and those who tried to fish in troubled waters died before the statue, in a very gruesome way.

Some had their all their limbs twisted off.

Some had their guts ripped out.

Some were skinned alive.

However, a lot of the bodies had their skulls cracked open and died because their brain was sucked out.

The extremely familiar scene made Kieran frowned.

Then, the statue moved!