The Devil’s Cage

A loud _bang_ later, formless waves came out from the void breach.

A never before felt pain drowned the Plague Calamity Dragon like the sea.

How many years had it been?

It had never experienced such a degree of pain!

Even the powerful enemy that it encountered during its birth did not put it in such an ugly situation!

Low, rageful, thunderous growls came out from the Plague Calamity Dragon’s mouth.

“Kill! Kill!”

Its eye was red and it widened its mouth, trying to eat Kieran, but before it could even extend its neck, the throwing happened again.

Relying on the rebound and motion, Devil Kieran twisted his body again and threw Plague Calamity Dragon out again.

It wasn’t thrown out into the sky or the other side of the void breach, but on the ground!

KABOOOM!

The ground shook like a violent earthquake.

Plague Calamity Dragon crashed onto an entire street block.

Devil Kieran extended his wings, the mystical runes on it looking a little gloomy because the No-fire Zone was still active, which included Flame Blast, but Kieran retained the ability to fly.

Kieran flapped his wings and flew up into the sky.

He then suddenly retracted his wings, allowing his magma body to freefall, crashing down on Plague Calamity Dragon’s head like a meteor.

Plague Calamity Dragon was rather dizzy after crashing on the land, it hadn’t reacted to the situation and the falling devil crashed hard onto itself.

Its giant head plunged deep into the land, its enormous body curled up a dozen meters high into the air and then falling down again, shaking the land once more!

That wasn’t the end!

The magma fists contained tremendous power after Kieran transformed into the devil. Punch after punch, the barrage of punches rained down on the Plague Calamity Dragon’s head like the storm.

Each punch that landed would shake its enormous body once.

The myriad of punches were endless, blurry afterimages created along the motion and each time the punch landed on the head, Plague Calamity Dragon would tremble, like it was electrocuted.

Plague Calamity Dragon tried to struggle but whenever it moved a muscle, the magma punch with the powerful force would beat it down in the ground again.

How powerful was the punch?

Plague Calamity Dragon couldn’t tell because its head was buzzing and its plague form was fading.

It finally regretted the decision it made earlier!

It realized its mistake and how dire it was!

It didn’t just wrongly estimate the power level of the Devil Overlord descendant, it even wrongly estimated his forte! He wasn’t good at using fire, it was brute strength! The fire that he used from the start was just a cover up!

Otherwise, even the Devil Libra, one of the talents of the Devil Overlord, shouldn’t have boosted his bloodline power to such an extreme extent!

Cunning bastard!

Plague Calamity Dragon screamed in its heart but the regretful scream did not change anything.

Kieran’s punches were like giant hammer, riding on the thick neck and landing punch after punch precisely on the Plague Calamity Dragon’s head.

BANG BANG BANG!

The concentrated punches produced continuous, connected clatters, the loud noise numbing one’s scalp.

Kieran took a peek at his attribute window, at the Strength column.

V+! His Strength had gone beyond rank V!

His Devil form provided a +I rank buff to all attributes and with the effect from the Devil Overlord Body, he got an extra +6 to his Strength. He also used Devil Libra to redistribute the attributes, pouring all of them into Strength to raise it to an extreme level.

There wasn’t any technique involved, just suppression from sheer brute strength.

Perhaps the Strength of Calamity Dragon’s true body would far exceed his current rank V+, even its plague form would have easily surpassed the limit but because [King’s Prestige]’s effect were in play, Calamity Dragon’s original attributes were halved, losing the ground to resist, hence allowing Kieran to punch it into the ground.

Nonetheless, Kieran knew Calamity Dragon in its plague form wouldn’t have just given up like that and it turned out the same.

Devil form also increased his Intuition perception. Kieran clearly felt a certain power was accumulating in Plague Calamity Dragon, similar to the Plague Breath but a lot stronger.

The moment he sensed it, Kieran activated [King’s Shattering Rage] without a second thought!

Golden radiance flowed in the magma in his body, Devil Kieran once again an increase of rank I to all his attributes. Although the skill had a limit of rank V, hence unable to increase Strength and Spirit anymore for the time being, the rest of his attributes would benefit, like adding wings to a tiger.

More so, what Kieran needed was that one attack with 50% ignore defense!

The golden radiance swirled and gathered on top of his magma fists.

He put his fists together, raised it over his head, the golden radiance flashing blindingly, shining over half the night sky, as though Kieran was holding the sun with his fist and a moment before the power filled up in Plague Calamity Dragon’s body, it was swung down hard.

KABOOM!

“Aaaaaargh!”

The land trembled fiercer any other times before this and Plague Calamity Dragon roared in agony. The power that gathered in its body was shattered by this powerful smash and its plague form started to fade, like candle in the wind.

After the heavy blow, Plague Calamity Dragon couldn’t maintain its No-fire Zone anymore.

Pak!

A clear noise of something breaking entered everyone’s ears, No-fire Zone then broke like a glass cup.

Fuuua!

The flames on the magma body burned blazingly, finally freed from the No-fire Zone, burning rampantly and hot.

The runes on the flames wings shone right away and Devil Kieran unleashed [Grand Flame Blast] without a second thought.

BOOOM!

The 100 meter, 150° area in front of Kieran was scorched by the flame wave.

With the Infusion from Fire Raven, the flames reached rank V and the blast impact rank IV, the traits of Devil Flame displayed to its fullest.

After three [Grand Flame Blasts] were fired out, the flames engulfed the fading Plague Calamity Dragon’s body wholly and Devil Flame burned its soul fiercely.

Plague Calamity Dragon didn’t even have the chance to whimper painfully because it saw a greatsword formed by Devil Flame appear in Kieran’s hands.

[Ruthless Beheader Flaming Sword]!

It had fought the Devil Overlord many times in the past, it knew what the flaming sword meant. It also knew what Kieran could do to its weakened plague form with this flaming sword .

Just like what it expected, Devil Kieran stabbed [Ruthless Beheader Flaming Sword] into its body, pried open the scales and thrust deeper into its plague form body.

[Ruthless Beheader Flaming Sword] didn’t just cut open its illusory body, it even burned Plague Calamity Dragon’s soul!

‘No! I can’t let this continue!’

Plague Calamity Dragon knew what would happen if this continued, its soul trembling violently.

Its mountain-like body instantly disintegrated after trembling and was transformed into the purest fuel, carrying its soul back to its original body.

“ROAR!”

Calamity Dragon roared at the sky after its soul came back.

It widened its eyes, which were 4-storey tall, glaring at Kieran fiercely, seemingly trying to brand Kieran into its mind.

It then wriggled its body, trying to return back to the void breach!

Run! Calamity Dragon wanted to run!

The Knight and Weapon Master woke up in a timely manner and saw the unbelievable scene in shock.

They never thought they would be alive to see Calamity Dragon runaway!

Based on how they were educated by their inheritance or predecessors, each arrival of Calamity Dragon was accompanied by endless disaster and expelling or sealing it would cost a great deal of lives.

Their own long line of legacy even broke more than one time because of the arrival of Calamity Dragon.

But now?

Calamity Dragon wanted to run! It wasn’t just running away, it was escaping with all its effort, disregarding the consequences.

Even though its body was stuck in the breach, it ought to shrink back inside the void; despite the fact that doing so would damage its body severely. It didn’t care.

“What happened? The Knight muttered to himself softly.

“Yea, what happened? Our persistence… ended just like this? Although this ending was fine to me, but…”

Weapon Master looked at the monitors blankly and shrugged.

The Knight also nodded in agreement to his friend’s statement.

However, at the very next moment, two of the oldest superheroes widened their eyes because Kieran in the monitors was giving chase!

He was chasing the Calamity Dragon!

He was on hot pursuit!

He flapped his wings and flew towards Calamity Dragon.

The Knight and Weapon Master looked at each other, never thinking Kieran was this brave but for Kieran, it was all too natural.

If he were to spit out the meat after it had been in his mouth, he wouldn’t be Kieran anymore, he would be the mimosa Starbeck.

Kieran was never a courteous person.

His magma foot stomped on Calamity Dragon’s head.

Calamity Dragon only wanted to escape, it wasn’t even angered by the insult anymore.

It only wanted to retreat to its own space and recover from its wounds.

One needed to know Calamity Dragon had made quite the sacrifice when it returned its own soul to the original body. In order to not suffer some irreversible damage on its soul, it rampantly went back to its body, which severely damaged its soul in the process.

Its body was still fine but its soul was heavily damaged, hence it was weakened heavily and tired, yet that was still better than enduring irreversible damage on its soul.

All it needed to do was rest and recover for 100 or 200 years and it could come back like a lively tiger again.

If its soul suffered irreversible damage, it would have to die on the spot!

Death!

Death was feared by all beings!

Calamity Dragon brought death upon countless living beings but it was quite resistant against death.

Calamity felt the blazing slashes on its head for Kieran was swinging [Ruthless Beheader Flaming Sword] in a flurry, showing a smile sneeringly.

And when it realized Kieran gave up on its head and went for its eyes, the sneering smile grew stronger.

“It’s useless! Do you think my true body is the same as my plague form? Or… do you think you can rely on your current power to destroy my defenses?”

A weak voice came from Calamity Dragon’s mouth but the sneers were never so obvious.

It turned out exactly like what Calamity Dragon said.

When it shut its eyes, Devil Kieran could not deliver any damage at the supposingly weakest eyelid, despite him wielding [Ruthless Beheader Flaming Sword].

As the furious slashes went on, Calamity Dragon kept wiggling its body and said, “Trying to accumulate the damage done to me? Impossible! You won’t have the time! Why don’t you try something else? Just look the other parts of my body, it’s already covered in my blood, shouldn’t there be a better spot for you to slash?” Calamity Dragon mocked with evil intents.

Should Kieran chose the bloody part of Calamity Dragon’s body, it would teach him an unforgettable lesson, just like how what it was going through right now.

Its exhausted and damaged soul robbed it of its attacking capabilities, all it could do now was endure the attacks.

One time of this kind of insult was enough, the next time, when it came back, it would return twice as much!

As the thought bloomed in its head, Calamity Dragon wriggled its body fiercely.

Then, the slashes stopped.

Calamity Dragon was smart enough to not open its eyes right away after falling for Kieran’s trick many times. It was afraid that when it opened its eyes, it would welcome a slash.

Since its soul was damaged, its perception was lowered to a pitiful level, all it could do now was test the water with its words.

“Why did you stop? Out of options already? Of course! You never stood a chance! I’ll admit you’ve won this time, but have you thought about the next?”

Despite losing, Calamity Dragon tried to save its face, threatening words coming out of its mouth uncontrollably.

However, Devil Kieran did not reply and it struck a bad feeling in Calamity Dragon’s heart.

Did it forget something important?

Right at that moment, its damaged soul trembled out of fear like never before.

Its body trembled, it felt the danger of death, and at the same time, it remembered what it had forgotten!

Gluttony! Amodrela’s pup, or last blood descendant of Star-devourer, was still inside its true body!

Gluttony had stopped eating its flesh and drinking its blood, hence Calamity Dragon didn’t feel the pain when it returned to its true body, and after being placed in a disadvantaged position and falling short against Kieran’s attacks, it had forgotten Gluttony’s existence completely.

It had forgotten but that didn’t mean Gluttony was gone!

Gluttony tried his best in controlling himself from gobbling up the flesh and blood, instead suppressed the thought of eating completely and made his way to the core of Calamity Dragon little by little.

“T-The tasty one is ahead! I can’t eat the flesh here. It will raise an alarm.”

Gluttony clumsily hypnotized himself.

He had tried his very best to lower his presence because Sloth was reminding him in his ear.

“According to my calculations, the core is just a little bit ahead of you… Huh? Why are you stopping?”

“I-I think I smell something good! Not in front, but below!” Gluttony answered honestly.

Sloth thought for a second and smiled.

“Believe your nose then!” said Sloth.

“Oh, OH!”

With his ‘elder brother’s’ support, Gluttony changed his direction and moved around 30 meters forward. He then arrived before an area which shared similar blood and flesh like other parts but possessed an unusual aroma.

Without further ado, Gluttony widened his mouth and took a bite!

Kak!

A clear noise later, juices flew out.