The Devil’s Cage

Kieran stepped forward, as though he didn’t see a wall of body cabinets in front of him.

The body cabinets, however, ‘saw’ him walking closer. The things inside got even more afraid and shrunk deeper into the wall en masse.

Kak!

After a spring contraption sounded, the whole wall of body cabinets were opened up left and right, like a door with two planks.

A big secret room was revealed to Kieran.

A large operation chair similar to a dissecting table was in the middle of the room. The floor around it was made out of ceramic and tainted with blood that had gone black; iron chains with hooks holding torn limbs at the end hung over the ceiling.

Kieran glanced over the rotten limbs.

They obviously weren’t the arms and legs the ex-wife of his identity lost, they were here for a while now and the severing technique was very crude. The limbs were chopped halfway down and then ripped away by sheer force, causing half of the cut to be neat and the other half, consisting of the skin, torn flesh, and broken bones, to be messily torn.

“Torture?”

The term came up in Kieran’s mind.

The torn cuts, the broken bones, all the signs told Kieran that if the cutter was serious, he could have easily severed the limbs easily in a clean cut, but he did not and chose a more tiring way.

Other than intentional torture, Kieran couldn’t think of anything else.

Glancing along the broken arms and legs, Kieran landed his gaze at the operation chair. There were several thick and broad leather straps on it. It seemed like all the dismemberment was done here.

Though Kieran wasn’t concerned about the chair or the straps, but something deeper inside.

Tsss!

Kieran moved his finger along the leather seat. The dried and rotten artificial leather broke and revealed the dirty cushion inside, plus a sculpture the size of a children’s fist.

One eye on the sculpture was bigger than usual, almost two thirds of the whole sculpture size and on the eye was carved a moon icon.

Even without the system notifications, when Kieran laid eyes on the abstract sculpting style, he knew it was from Mordin’s hand, and it proved him right.

[Name: Imperfect Mordin Sculpture]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: Legendary]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: Powerful]

[Attribute: Moon Eclipse]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: It comes from Master Sculptor Mordin. Although unrecorded, the power it contains should not be underestimated.]

[Moon Eclipse: Able to gather negative energy, wandering souls and transform them into pure life energy, supporting the owner; 0.5 HP/ min (Day), 1HP/ min (Night), 5HP/ min (Basking in moonlight during conversion)]

“Recover HP?”

Kieran squinted his eyes as he tossed the sculpture up and down.

The moment he picked the sculpture up, translucent souls started to appear before him from the walls and ground. Hundreds of souls appeared in an instant, the room getting crowded as they stacked up.

Each soul looked lost and without thoughts, no memories, no emotions, all instinctively attracted here by Mordin’s sculpture.

Kieran did not convert all of them with [Imperfect Mordin Sculpture] though.

He had no use for such conversion now and was also still very alarmed by the statue. He hadn’t forgotten what his purpose was for coming down to the morgue.

Kieran put away [Imperfect Mordin Sculpture] and those wandering souls woke up from their trance state. All of them shrieked in fear when they saw Kieran, going back into the walls and ground, scattering away in less than a second.

Unlike the natural attraction from Mordin’s sculpture, their fear of Kieran made them understand what they should do.

Kieran walked around the secret room for a thorough check, coming out from it after a fruitless inspection. He headed to the corner and tapped McRose with the tip of his foot.

“O-Ouch!” McRose woke up with a painful moan.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw Kieran.

She clenched her fist and wanted to punch Kieran, remembering how she passed out but promptly after the thought rose, more memories followed and it shook her body. Her tightened fist loosened into a weak palm, trying to grab Kieran’s pants.

Kieran, again, dodged her.

“There is a secret room in your morgue. Many had died inside over the years, and I suggest you contact Gredith right away,” Kieran said.

“Secret room? Dead people? Gredith?” McRose repeated what Kieran said in a blank state before she shook her head rapidly.

“No no no! I can’t tell her! She will seal my forensic lab! If I lose my job, I can’t pay off my debt, and if I can’t pay off my debt, my house will be taken. After my house is taken, I’ll be living on the streets!” She made her way over to the secret room as nervousness took over.

“W-What is this?!”

McRose was stunned completely when she saw the secret room. What she saw before her eyes right now was what she saw when she got dragged into the body cabinet. The only difference was this time she was standing.

Before this, she was strapped on the operation chair, something dark wielding a knife and moving around her body. McRose shivered.

She wasn’t a coward though. Since she was a pathologist, her courage spoke for herself but the scene that she had experienced earlier was too real, as if it was a part of her personal experience.

Kieran stood outside the secret room and watched McRose, who was inside. He clearly felt the negative energy that he felt inside her start to change.

Although it was negative energy, it did not consume McRose’s life force, instead nourishing her body.

“A spiritual medium body?”

Recalling the term from a book at Nikorei’s collection, shock flashed over Kieran’s eyes.

Unlike common shamans or extraordinary individuals, spiritual mediums were uncommon because they completely relied on luck in their inheritance. Even if the parents were spirit mediums, they may not 100% inherit the same traits, similar to the so-called prophets.

Rare and uncommon were the common descriptions for these people.

Running into a pathologist who was a spiritual medium in this particular timing, Kieran related to more things.

His original thoughts changed quickly.

“What are you going to do with it?” Kieran asked.

“I…”

She wanted to say ‘I’ll close this place and pretend nothing ever happened’, but when the words formed in her mind, it somehow reminded her of that scene where she was strapped on the operation chair.

Unwillingness and fear filled her heart, forbidding her to say something so optimistic.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this,” said McRose.

She then looked at Kieran with anticipation.

He was her life-saving straw by appearing in the nick of time, saving her from danger.

“Thank you for saving me. A person with compassion like you will help me, right?”

She thanked Kieran, placed her arms in front of her chest and widened her eyes, making herself look more pitiful than ever. If Kieran didn’t kick her away earlier, she would have held his arm, swinging it left and right coquettishly.

“No. I am not, and you are on your own,” Kieran replied coldly.

“Then why are you here in the middle of the night…” McRose questioned him but when the words escaped her mouth, she reacted to the situation.

His ex-wife was in the morgue.

Despite the separation, their relationship was much stronger than a stranger, like her, who he had only met once.

Therefore, the reason why Kieran appeared in the morgue surely wasn’t for her, but his ex-wife.

Once the thought came into her mind, McRose was depressed.

“I knew I shouldn’t have risked it and bought a house. If I didn’t but it, I won’t be this tired, if I wasn’t this tired, I wouldn’t run into these kinds of things.”

McRose squatted down, hugging her knee, ranting helplessly.

She then heard footsteps of Kieran leaving the morgue and the closing door.

She was left alone in the morgue.

When Kieran was with her, McRose didn’t feel anything particular but when she was left alone, something about the morgue didn’t feel right to her.

Her mind started to imagine things.

She felt like she was being watched from the ceiling and the ground; she felt like she was watched from the left, and the right.

McRose shivered with goosebumps.

A moment ago, she was ranting in depression but a moment later, she was scared and ran outside.

“Wait for me!” She screamed as she ran, but when she was outside the morgue, Kieran was nowhere to be found.

What she saw was an empty street with a windy night breeze. McRose shivered again.

Even though she hasn’t switched off the lights in her workshop, she dared not go back in again and ran towards the crowded place.

Kieran saw McRose run off in panic in the shadows before he started to search the area for any suspicious buildings. He started off from McRose Forensic Lab and covered almost everything in a 10km radius.

Fruitless, Kieran returned to Elm Tree Street and started the same search in the neighbourhood. Likewise, he did not get anything.

“Something must have happened to the arm. The head and torso moved and sat up because of those wandering souls. Despite this mysterious person controlling only an arm in a limited range, some presence or traces should be left behind but I got nothing at all.”

When the arm appeared, based on Kieran’s Mystical Knowledge, something would have happened to the head and the torso too. That was the reason why Kieran headed to the forensic lab for clues.

However, things obviously turned out different from Kieran’s expectations.

“Some spells that I don’t know off are used? Or the traces were erased when this mysterious person knew it went south? Perhaps the arm belonged to someone else?”

Kieran recalled all the scenes that he encountered, raising more questions than he solved.

He then thought of the newly acquired [Imperfect Mordin Sculpture].

“Was the sculpture hidden there from the start? Or was it part of this mysterious person’s plan? If it was, what does this person seek?”

Kieran would never believe in a free meal.

Although [Imperfect Mordin Sculpture] wasn’t a big deal to him anymore, it was a good item, and rare, for many others.

In order to give up such a good item, this person must be getting something even more valuable.

“Can it be… someone in this world is also collecting Mordin’s sculptures?” Kieran suddenly related to more things.

More and more thoughts popped up after this theory in his mind.

“If that’s the case…”

Kieran’s squinted eyes glinted brightly.

He jumped up and quietly went back to his room.

The sky on the east started to brighten up, a new day beginning.

The two officers on watch duty the whole night yawned.

“Coffee.”

Gredith on her bike passed her men two cups of coffee.

“Thanks, boss,” The two officers received the coffee.

“How are things?” Gredith asked.

“Nothing unusual. After cleaning the room, 2567 slept and woke up around dawn to wash up.”

“He also dropped by 4-2-2, Eatery Hut and brought home a mountain of food.”

“What a good appetite, definitely doesn’t look like someone whose wife just died.”

“It’s ex-wife.”

“After the divorce and broken relationship, I guess he was eager to see his ex-wife dead, am I right?”

“So now the ex-wife is really dead, isn’t that good for him? Boss, what do you have on your side?”

One of the officers corrected the others before looking at Gredith.

“I’ve checked the two of them and realized…”

Just when Gredith was about to reveal what she got, her attention was captured by someone further away.

An exhausted man was staggering towards them.

“Is this the place of Dr. 2567?” the man asked politely but the bloodshot eyes made his politeness weird.

“Yes, there,” Gredith pointed at the gates of 2-1-6.

“Thank you,” the man thanked her politely and strode to the gates of 2-1-6 to press the doorbell.

“Dr.2567? I’ve made an appointment today. Sorry I came so early, please help me.”

As the man begged, the nurse walked out and invited him in.

Gredith furrowed her brows as she saw the man go inside.

“What’s wrong boss?” one of the officers asked.

“Does that guy reminds you of someone?” Gredith asked.

“Someone?” the other officer was stunned and the realization hit the first officer.

“I think he is…”