The Devil’s Cage

“Good evening, mayor.”

Cook smiled and greeted Syro Derl.

Syro Derl’s gloomy eyes shined with ruthlessness when he saw the smile on Cook.

He knew Cook but was not truly familiar with him.

All Syro Derl knew about Cook was that his identity was that of an ‘ancient coin dealer’ and that he was at most a little bit smarter than others.

As for more?

Before this moment, he didn’t know any more.

Cook was like any other dealer or merchant, greedy and stingy.

But now, Syro Derl related him to more; like Carlo, Kairo and Annie Penny Lynne’s disappearance, and Quaker Wilberst and Aimor Morr’s deaths.

“It was you?” Syro Derl questioned coldly.

“Are you referring to your nephews, Annie Penny Lynne and Aimor Morr? That’s right; it is what you think. I did it. Even until now, Annie Penny Lynne’s taste is still unforgettable. It’s too bad… that she’s too weak, similar to your two nephews; all of them can’t stand a bit of suffering.”

Cook smiled and shrugged his crotch, his flabby belly also shaking following the action.

“So the mistakes that the idiot Hardy Lynne made, it was all your handy work?” Syro Derl asked.

“En, but not entirely…” Cook nodded and continued, but before he could finish, another laser beam fired at him.

However, Cook, reacting as though he had foreseen the outcome, moved his fat body with an agility that didn’t match his physique. He tiptoed and twisted his body, and the laser grazed his body.

“It’s meaningless for this kind of harsh treatment. I am here to make a sincere deal with you.”

Cook looked at the laser installed on the other end of the wall and curled his lips, looking disdainful, but when he looked at Syro Derl again, his disdain shifted into flattery, like the cunning smile of a businessman.

“What deal?” Syro Derl asked.

His voice and expression didn’t change, as if the laser that fired wasn’t his doing.

“Your research! I am also quite interested in this whole immortal business. Of course, no one can resist the temptation of being immortal, just like those important figures who protected you 30 years ago. You people used humans as live subjects for experiments, yet that massive accident happened. But you somehow survived, and your career rose to a prominent state. Too bad none of the others made it today.” Cook stated his intentions straightforwardly.

He then pretended to exclaim about the incident, but unfortunately, his exclamations and smiling face had zero persuasiveness.

Syro Derl stared at Cook. He was trying to determine whether he was lying or not, but Cook’s face, swollen from the excessive fat on his body, made it hard, and Syro Derl couldn’t see anything useful.

Soon, Syro Derl gave up his fruitless attempt.

Whether Cook was telling the truth or not, he would not grant Cook’s wish.

Want him to hand over his research?

Impossible!

Other than Syro Derl himself, no one would get their hands on his research, including those crucial figures who protected him before.

Had they really died of old age?

Some yes, some… no.

“You want my research? What are you trading for it?” Syro Derl had made up his mind but pretended to ask.

“Trade? Do I hear it right? Isn’t all this obvious enough? What else is more precious than your life?”

Cook laid his hands open, turned his body sideways, and pointed at Syro Derl in the container and then at himself; his meaning was obvious.

“Yes, life is the most precious. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be seeking immortality.” Syro Derl nodded as though he was willing to compromise.

Cook smiled at the seemingly compliant Syro Derl.

“It’s great that you understand…”

Bang!

Before his smile faded, his fat body exploded.

No! Not exploded, but imploded!

He was squashed by a formless force! Like a mosquito being squashed by hands.

When a mosquito was squashed, the blood inside its body would taint the hands.

Cook’s blood and flesh splashed all over the glass containers.

Syro Derl in the glass container smiled gloomily as he stared at Cook’s squashed remains, not blinking an eye.

Of course, he wouldn’t blink; he wanted to have a good look at the gruesome remains of the fat bastard.

Otherwise, how could he calm himself down enough to complete the upcoming experiments?

Thus, Syro Derl immediately noticed something wrong with the splattered blood.

A person appeared on top of all the blood and flesh.

The person hadn’t appeared suddenly, as he was there all this time inside Cook’s fat body!

When that fat body imploded, it revealed the person inside.

The strange scene astonished Syro Derl, but what shocked him further was the face he saw.

“Wilberst?!” Syro Derl couldn’t hold back his cry of shock when he got a good look.

His cry of shock was replied with a loud mocking laugh from Wilberst.

“As I expected. You really don’t know the real secret here! Or should I say, you are too quick, to the point that the important figure who thought highly of you couldn’t tell you in time? You are a moron, you thought you’d gotten everything under control, yet you neglected the biggest secret. You are really…a joke!” Wilberst spoke slowly, but his voice was Cook’s.

“What secret?” Syro Derl asked.

“I won’t tell you. And… stop doing all those petty tricks. It’s useless; you were destined to fail from the start!” Wilberst said before turning around.

“DIE!” Syro Derl shouted at Wilberst’s back as he activated the mystical power in his body, but the power he usually wielded like his limbs didn’t appear; instead, it was rapidly melting away.

On top of that, not just the power in his body, even his body was melting away.

“No! NO! It shouldn’t be like this! NO!”

Syro Derl shouted and struggled, but that was all; he didn’t achieve anything else. All he could do was watch as Wilberst walked to the center of the hall and opened a secret compartment. He watched as a dazzling cone floated out of the compartment.

Then?

As he felt the abnormal energy consuming him, Syro Derl vanished with a face of regret.

Syro Derl melted into a pile of liquid that was incompatible with the gooey liquid inside the container, thus forming a contrasting scene. The pile of liquid reeked heavily, just like the other bodies in the containers.

Wilberst knew what was happening behind him, but he also knew that he must hasten his work.

Otherwise, his collaborator might not show any mercy.

Wilberst tried to reach out to the dazzling cone, but as he moved his hand, a bloody figure reeking of blood jumped out from the shadows behind him and threw itself toward the cone.

It was Wilberst’s collaborator.

He knew who it was once he smelled the bloody stench.

Wilberst would not give up, and neither would his collaborator.

In the end, neither of them, who tried to snatch the cone, got it at all; instead, they ended up launching attacks at each other because they knew they would only get their hands on the cone once they killed the other.

BOOM!

The punch and claw collided, causing a loud explosion.

The burst of air instantly shattered all the glass containers in the hall.

Amidst the shattering glass, the cone that was floating in mid-air, affected by the blast of air, was thrown towards a corner of a wall.

The corner was where the body of ‘Wilberst’ was, the body that Syro Derl first brought into the hall.

Then, this ‘body’ moved.