The Devil’s Cage

Dak, Dak, Dak, Dak!

Messy and staggered footsteps were heard in the garage, a dirty man suddenly appeared under the lights, wobbling as though he was drunk.

“Here! Here!”

He was panting heavily, his mouth was screaming ceaselessly as if he was roaring like a lion.

Each time he shouted, a person that was petrified into a statue would explode.

Bang!

Bang Bang!

The garage was filled with a bloody mist within an instant.

Those who seemed to be petrified inside out was actually only petrified on the outside, underneath the outer layer of stone, there were still flesh and blood.

The explosions that occurred made the six petrified men look like overstuffed sausages, after bursting the stone casing, their flesh, blood, and organs splattered out like fireworks.

The dirty man who kept screaming threw himself on to the floor covered with blood and organs, disregarding the consequences. He grabbed the flesh and organs on the floor and stuffed it into his mouth.

He didn’t even chew but swallowed each and every piece.

Half of the flesh and organs of the six petrified people were swallowed by the man in less than a minute.

In order for the man to achieve such terrible eating speed, he stuffed his cheeks to the max and even tore his lips wide. Sharper teeth were revealed as his lips were torn wide, the disfigured mouth looked like a shark’s mouth crunching its food.

The devouring of flesh and organs kept on going, the blood gradually covered the man’s hands, face, and shirt. When the man was completely dyed red, another statue the size of the forearm of a grown man slowly floated up behind his back.

The statue didn’t have limbs and didn’t even have a proper torso, all the weird statue had was a long and narrow face.

Although the long face looked extremely dull and emotionless, the sharp teeth that spread outwards from its mouth were showing an indescribable viciousness, especially when the statue merged itself with the man’s back, small lines of muscle-tendon sprung out from the man’s back, connecting to the statue’s face.

As the man’s heart continued to beat as if a portion of nutrients were transferred to the statue from the man through the muscle tendons.

That wasn’t the end yet, the statue even started to shake.

The man who was captivated by the flesh and organs on the scene lost his sanity over the bloody explosion. Now, after forgetting what his initial intentions were, he was controlled like a puppet by the statue, carrying out its will and dashing out of the garage like a fearsome beast.

“Damn it!”

“What the hell is that thing?”

“Fire! Fire now!”

Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The few guards of the Bloody Ridges on duty were screaming in shock, the leader of the bunch pointed his gun at the monster, squeezing the trigger non-stop.

As the leader fired the first shot, the sound pulled the shocked guards back to reality, all of them started to fire a rain of bullets at the beastly man.

Unfortunately, all the guards of the Bloody Ridges were just normal men, regardless of their will, reactions, or offensive abilities, all of them were too far away compared to the beastly man.

When the guards pointed their guns at the man, he already ran towards the other side, taking cover from the bullets.

No matter how powerful their bullets were, they were useless if they couldn’t hit their target. Therefore, even with heavy firearms on the guard’s side, the situation was totally one-sided.

Rawr!

After another fearsome roar, the guards who had emptied their bullets long ago yet kept squeezing the triggers, they were then thrown on the ground as the beastly man jumped on them and their throats were bitten off.

Tsssk!

The flesh on their necks was bitten off by the beastly man together with their throats, the blood gushed up as high as 2 meters or more.

When the leader fell, the blood that was gushing like a fountain had easily crumbled the minds of the other guards around him.

These men from the Bloody Ridges had unrivaled bravery and ruthlessness that shunned away gazes when they were facing others who were weaker than them.

However, when they faced a foe that was countless times stronger than them, they were even more inferior and useless than those they once held in contempt and looked down on, let alone a monster of the unknown.

They were considered decent already when they could fire the weapons in their hands for a few rounds in spite of the gruesome scene, but that was it.

“Monster!”

“Monster!”

“Run for your lives!”

When the first one started to run, the remaining guards gave up resisting completely and followed their peers but such fleeing would only increase their rate of death.

The red beastly man growled heavily and pleasantly at his prey who turned their backs on him, it was like a tiger jumping onto multiple preys, taking them down in succession. Each time a prey was caught, it would use its hand and mouth to kill it before jumping off the dead ones on to the next target.

Within a couple of breaths, the fleeing guards were all dead.

Roar!

The beastly man stood among the bodies, roaring at the sky with a sense of boasting about his results.

The weird statue behind its back was emanating a profound aura after the massacre and under the stimulation of the aura, translucent souls started to pop out from the dead bodies.

All the souls exchanged gazes, glazing over each other.

Then, a half illusive, half real red arm burst out from the statue with a heavy wicked and cunning aura, it grabbed the few souls with a single grip and dragged them all inside the statue.

Gak Tss, Gak Tss.

After a clear crunching noise, the aura on the weird statue grew denser.

The temperature around the monster had obviously increased following the aura.

The man who devoured the flesh and organs started to grow restless with his gibberish-like mumbles. More screams came from his chest and right after that, beams of light that petrified anything it shined on burst out like a flashbang grenade.

The whole garage was enshrouded by the petrifying light.

The structure was originally made out of bricks but now was covered with a layer of gray rocks.

Metal, glass, plastic, rubber, even the bodies on the floor, all were turned into rocks without exception; except Kieran!

The beams of light that petrified everything they shined on was nothing but a light breeze when they were shined on Kieran, it didn’t change him one bit. However, Kieran in the shadows was looking shocked at the scene.

The situation before him obviously exceeded his expectations, he never thought such a situation would occur.

He saw the statue possess the man, felt the temperature in the surroundings rise, heard the wicked gibberish from the mumbles and when he saw the statue control the man to throw itself at Kieran after being discovered by the petrifying light, Kieran squinted his eyes.

Although things were out of his expectations, it didn’t stop him from solving the problem with his own hands.

But just as Kieran was about to make his move, dealing with this troublesome being, a never before felt disgust came from the Devil Force in his heart.

Kieran even heard the devil’s roar echoing in his ears.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

Raging roars one after one another was enough to change the sky yet it couldn’t budge Kieran’s heart. He was used to dealing with the wickedness and ruthlessness in his body, just like how he was used to dealing with his enemies.

Bang!

The man charging at Kieran was pressed to the ground with a single kick. His body was struggling ceaselessly but eventually turned weak and limp. The statue behind the man’s back extended its red arm again, trying to “probe” the target.

The illusory yet real red arm with a dense wicked and cunning aura was extended towards Kieran, trying to grab him.

The temperature in the area got even higher, the devilish mumbles got even louder and the red arm was getting closer.

Right after that…

Another mirage of a magma arm that was a few times more robust than the red arm sprung out from Kieran’s back, grabbing the red arm tightly.

The rising temperature was forced to a pause and the devilish mumbles were halted abruptly.

Right at the next moment, after another sound of realistic bone crushing, the temperature surged as if the place was in the sea of fire; the devilish mumbles got louder as if it was praising the darkness.

A devil mirage that looked utterly real stood behind Kieran, looking down at the shaking statue like it was some delicious appetizer.