The Devil’s Cage

The voice of the young, elegantly dressed man was cold and merciless, like the death before his eyes was of no concern, even though the number of deaths had exceeded what a common man

could comprehend.

“Yes sir.”

The ordering officer in full black armor moved out after the command was given.

The rest of the soldiers stood beside the young man. Each one of them had a strong presence, comparable to the temple knights…

No! They were even stronger than the temple knights!

Among the temple knights, there were only a few who could don a heavy-plated armor, carry a two-handed greatsword at their back and move with the speed of a sprinting horse.

It was only achievable with a perfect combination of strength, stamina and speed.

Of course, the other concerning thing was the hatred contained in their presence.

It was as fierce as a vengeful spirit, as heavy as an evil spirit.

One would shiver without the actual cold when looking at them, but their presence was insignificant compared to the elegantly dressed young man.

The hatred on the young man’s face was so real that it distorted his elegant countenance.

What was left on his face was coldness and ferocity, with a little cruelty.

He ought to ‘repay’ what he had been through to those people.

Otherwise, how could he be at peace?

The young man raised his right hand and waved softly.

Right away, the soldiers, who had been waiting for a long time, launched their charge.

Unlike those monsters who seemed powerful but had obvious weaknesses, the mentioned soldiers were the ace of the group.

The soldiers had strength comparable to the monsters, in addition to discipline that allowed them to execute orders without fail and a fearlessness when presented with death, which made them exceptionally scary.

The black soldiers charged towards the defending soldiers and knights of the temples.

Dang!

The black two-handed greatsword landed on the defending shield.

The tremendous power imbued in the greatsword shook the shield-wielder fiercely, but the soldier behind the shield clenched his teeth hard, having no intentions of stepping away, even in death.

Beside the defending soldier was his brother-in-arms, who lunged a spear through the seams of the shield, thrusting it towards the seams of the black armor.

But…

Ding!

A clear metal clunking noise later, the spear didn’t pierce the black soldier’s body. Instead, the black soldier grabbed the spear and pulled hard.

Bang!

The spear-wielding soldier crashed onto the shield-wielder, who didn’t expect it to unfold like this. The shield-wielder was giving his best effort to block the black greatsword above him but his stance was disrupted by the sudden crash.

What was worse was the black greatsword suddenly rose, removing the pressure from his shield, dragging both of them out from their formation like tumbling gourds.

A breach was opened in the air-tight formation!

No one would have thought the sturdy formation that had blocked the monsters for a long time, even before the defense line was built up by the temple personnel, would suffer a breach shortly after clashing with the black soldiers.

And soon, more breaches were pried open among the formation.

The black soldier didn’t care about the two tumbling soldiers. Instead, before the breach closed, it rushed inside.

Sou Sou Sou Sou!

Arrows were fired from the seams of the formation, each landing precisely on the black soldier’s body, more than a dozen arrows stopping it from charging through the defensive formation, but there was more than one black soldier.

While the archers were attracted by that particular black soldier, many more rammed themselves onto the defensive formation.

They either used a similar method to open a breach or rammed it down with brute force.

The black soldiers charged forward and disregarded everything, trying to knock down the shields.

Dan Dan Dan Dan!

Compared to a skillful technique, the brute force from the black soldiers was even more terrifying.

The whole defensive formation was weakened badly and would fall any second.

A War Temple knight, who temporarily took over command of the battle, waved the ordering flag in his hand without a second thought.

Right away, the temple’s knights circled to the right side of the battlefield, raising their lances in their hands, charging towards the black soldiers, trying to take them out with momentum and lighten the burden on the defensive formation.

But before the knights could charge forward, a bulge as big as a watermelon appeared beside their horses’ hooves.

“Careful!”

Bang Bang Bang Bang!

Buzzzzzz!

The leader of the group of knights warned loudly but before his words even subsided, the bulge burst, sending out countless flies into the air and clouding the knights instantaneously.

Within a breath’s time, the war horses and the knights were all attacked and sucked into dried corpses.

“Scatter away! Kerosene attack!” the leader of the group of knights shouted again.

The remaining knights quickly took out bottles of kerosene from their saddle, lit them up and hurled them towards the flies.

Blam! Bam! Baaaam!

A few explosions went off in succession, the flies swiftly burnt to cinders. The danger was soon disarmed, but it was just the knight’s part, the defensive formation was still in a critical situation.

The entire defensive formation was split in half by the ramming black soldiers, each part surrounded and attacked by black soldiers no lesser than their numbers.

Anyone could tell the defensive formation was on the brink of breaking down with a single glance.

“Sigh.”

Harvest Temple archpriest, who only had one hand left, stood up.

He glanced over the civilians behind him and saw the soldiers and knights who were fighting a bloody battle, then walked out of the defensive line.

When he left the defensive line, his hand was holding an ear of golden wheat.

The grains were full and radiating with golden light, dancing in the air like a dandelion.

The grains landed on the ally soldiers and knights, the exhaustion and wounds instantly healed, everyone revitalized.

The grains also landed on the black soldiers and monsters, bringing an immense force, like a mountain had fallen on them.

Gak, tssk tssss!

Bang Bang Bang!

The tremendous force on their body caused their bones to crack and screech, their muscles starting to break, and when the force had reached a certain level, their organs started to get crushed.

Some monsters even exploded wholly.

“Finally ready to make your move?”

The elegantly dressed young man laughed coldly as he looked at the Harvest Temple archpriest.

Likewise, the Harvest Temple archpriest also sensed the young man, as his gaze was obvious and the laughter was clear.

However, when the archpriest saw the young man, his eyes showed astonishment.

“Livezel?! Why? How? How did you?!”

The archpriest took a step back amid his inconceivable words.

He wasn’t a stranger to the young man before his eyes. Every single Harvest Ceremony was supported by Melody Temple and this young man’s flute and harp performance left quite an impression in his mind.

Especially the divine melody of the flute! The young man was the first to ever play it!

Without a doubt, Livezel, the priest from Melody Temple, would have been the future archpriest, but during the evacuation, he went missing.

Everyone thought Livezel had fallen into the less fortunate group, but the scene before the archpriest’s eyes told him that things weren’t as simple as they believed.

But…

Was it important?

This was a battlefield!

The battlefield where life and death was determined!

The archpriest of Harvest Temple took a deep breath and a step forward, the golden ear of wheat in his hand swinging at Livezel.

The tremendous force appeared again!

It was the force from the land!

“The life that you gave birth to will eventually return to you!” the archpriest sang loudly.

When the song started, the force was amplified a few times, far surpassing the range of the common pressure force.

The land was selfless, allowing crops to absorb nutrients from the soil, growing, maturing and eventually producing the harvest of joy.

The land was also merciless, taking away countless lives each time it took a breath or shook.

Each life it took had countless thoughts, sorrows and anger. The emotions gathered into a weight that was hard for a man to bear.

It was also irresistible because it was the soul that had been shaken.

But Livezel’s cold smile hadn’t gone away. In fact, his expression hadn’t changed at all.

“Did you think it would be useful against me? Or did you arrogantly think that I stood before you because I wanted to fight you? Oh, I am waiting for you alright, but you are just someone along the way!”

Amid his sneering words, Livezel raised his hand and pointed at the Harvest Temple archpriest.

The hatred in his presence materialized and turned black!

It then fired itself at the archpriest like a hurling javelin.

The golden light from the ear of wheat broke like paper when the black javelin touched it.

The archpries’s eyes widened , not believing what he saw.

How was this possible? How could a mortal defeat the divine power?

Doubts filled the archpriest’s heart, but it didn’t delay his actions. He quickly stepped aside and dodged the black javelin.

Then, he swung the golden wheat down at the black javelin that grazed his body.

Further away, Livezel showed even greater mockery, a sense of anticipation amidst the sneers.

Bang!

When the golden wheat slashed the black javelin, a loud bang was produced and it snapped the black javelin right away.

The archpriest couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief.

“I knew the power of the Gods wouldn’t fail! What happened just now was some coincidental happening, it will not happen…”

Before he could finish lying to himself, the archpriest saw a dash of black on his golden wheat.

The dash of black was faint and looked like mist. It spread quickly, like the plague, and within a breath’s time, half of the golden wheat was infected by the black color.

The archpriest was horrified. He instinctively wanted to infuse his own power into the golden wheat, attempting to resist the black infection, but before he could make a move, the ear of wheat flew out of his hand, flying away like a comet.

The golden wheat ran?! No! More precisely, the God of Harvest ran!

As the holy relic of Harvest Temple, there were less than 3 people in the whole temple that could use the golden wheat and there was only one existence who could take away the golden wheat from the archpriest of Harvest Temple, which was the God of Harvest himself!

The archpriest looked in the direction where the golden wheat almost flew out of sight, his face pale and his eyes gloomy, his body wobbling a few times before falling down on the ground.

The soldiers and knights who were revitalized a moment ago for more fighting suddenly felt weak, as though their spine was taken away, their morale completely dead.

Behind the defense line, soft crying came and this time, it wasn’t the children but the mothers.

The mothers hadn’t cried when they faced the monsters, the strong women keeping faith. Yet, they cried at this very moment, because they knew they were abandoned.

They were abandoned by the God they believed would support and protect them.

What else was more saddening than being betrayed by the only existence you trusted wholeheartedly in the world?

None!

When the trust collapsed, their lives were destroyed.

Livezel, who had once experienced this despair, laughed loudly.

“Hahahahahahaha! That’s right! That’s right! This is it, this is the pain and the despair!”

The young man was convulsed with laughter, the loud laughs making him short of breath, as if this was the happiest moment of his life.

But what he said was colder than ever, like the arctic wind that came from the north.

It was spine-chilling.

“What you people just experienced is what I’ve experienced before, at the very beginning of my horrible experience! Don’t worry! I will make sure every one of you experience what I experienced, no one will be excluded! And first, let’s start with you!”

Livezel then looked at the archpriest of Harvest Temple, striding over to him.

The archpriest sat there dully, as if he couldn’t feel anything. Even when he saw the hidden snake scales around Livezel’s wrist, nothing changed.

When the God of Harvest fled, the archpriest, who wasn’t an idiot, knew something was up.

And now?

Now, the archpriest was facing the harshest of realities and he only hoped that it would end quickly.

Livezel placed his palm over the archpriest’s crown, the hidden snake scales around his wrist spreading rapidly.

From Livezel’s wrist to his palm and then the scalp of the archpriest, the forehead, the eyes, the nose…

The snake scales were like wriggling worms, moving inwards bit by bit, devouring the archpriest’s insides bit by bit.

“Aaaaaaaarh!”

An uncontrollable cry of pain came from the archpriest’s mouth, despite the fact that he was blank and dull like the living dead just a moment ago.

That was the reason why Livezel didn’t cover the archpriest’s mouth. He wanted to hear the screams, just like how he did before.

Livezel could only calm the pain in his heart with the screams and cries of others—the pain made up from pride, shame, and anger was very painful, like his soul was being whipped.

Each whip that landed on him would tear his heart apart in pain.

Each whip that he suffered was unbearable to remember.

The pain was like an erupting burning sensation that burned his body every single second.

Fortunately, the screams in his ears slightly eased the burning sensation.

Livezel closed his eyes, wanting to slowly enjoy this particular moment, but…

The burning sensation appeared the moment he closed his eyes, in a much fiercer manner than ever before.

Instinctively, Livezel opened his eyes.

Kaboom!