The Devil’s Cage

The voice was clear but without any emotions, like Kieran’s emotionless face.

The pale looking apostle was frozen, he couldn’t move his body at all due to fear.

The crying prophet stopped his loud crying but he wept softly, making him look more pitiful than before.

The two knew a lot about the mystical side, so their instincts reacted naturally when they saw Kieran in front of them.

As for more?

They did hold their trembles back though.

The prophet held back the apostle and shared his ‘vision’. The apostle saw a darkness filled wilderness without any signs of life, despair starting to come afloat in his heart.

He saw what the darkness really was. It t wasn’t the natural one, neither was it the common supernatural darkness, it was… the darkness of devour!

The horror that devours everything!

The monsters in the darkness looked lazy and arrogant yet none of them bothered to cover their hunger, like they were gods from up above looking down at the mortals.

Their gazes were filled with disdain.

Clenching his teeth, the apostle did not bow but that was the best he could do, and when a blazing light appeared further away, the apostle fell down on the ground.

His widened eyes spotted a magma devil.

Unlike the monsters in the dark, this magma devil emanated a chaotic aura and before he even got closer, the apostle realized his heart and soul was tainted by the presence, wicked whispers starting to appear in his ears.

The scariest thing was the apostle could not do anything to stop this!

He finally knew why the prophet cried out loud like a baby.

Death was inevitable.

A bitter look appeared on the apostle’s face.

He tried his best to sit straight and hoped that he could go frankly when death arrived.

If he could, he would want to stand, but his limping legs failed him.

The magma devil came closer and then…

Everything vanished!

The apostle returned to the little chapel.

Behind him was the weeping prophet and he himself was sitting in a rather decent posture.

There were no monsters in the darkness or the magma devil with its menacing presence In front of him. He only saw Kieran, a rather cold but normal looking young man.

Yet the apostle understood how scary Kieran was.

The Demon God!

He who had been through death yet escaped samsara and came back again with its devilish presence.

Recalling the darkness and blazing light in his mind, the apostle was utterly sure of the young man’s identity. The wicked aura from either the darkness or the blazing light provided a strong confirmation on first glance.

‘Sigh, is this our end?’

The apostle sighed in his heart before he tapped on his friend’s shoulder, trying to calm him down.

He tried to maintain his sitting posture straight and said, “I’ve seen your Majesty’s background and also understood your identity. You are one of the many who left, or one of the many who withered. We can’t request anything from you, neither do we dare. All we hope is that you follow the ancient contract…”

As he spoke, the apostle took a dagger out from his sleeve.

The dagger wasn’t long but by no means was it small. The blade was broad, making it look like a cleaver.

The apostle pointed the dagger to his heart and his voice started to tremble.

“My soul will be your offering…for you to use as you please!”

The strange dagger was pushed towards his chest but it did not go in or pierce his chest.

The prophet, with a face full of tears and snot, grabbed the apostle’s hand just in time and shook his head strongly. His tears and snot sprayed all over the apostle’s clean yet patched up robe.

Kieran quietly stepped back.

‘I’ve seen some disgusting things in my life but that doesn’t mean I like it.’

After getting a safe distance, Kieran looked at the prophet.

“Your return, your awakening, I’ve seen all of it. I’ve also seen what you seek, so I hope to strike a deal with you.”

The prophet begged softly.

What I seek?

Doubt flashed over Kieran’s eyes.

Truth be told, Kieran did not believe the prophet about what he claimed he saw. Even if he did see something, he was just scaring himself with that, and…it seemed like the prophet was quite shaken.

Though it did not stop Kieran from testing the man.

“Deal?” Kieran asked slowly with his ever cold tone.

“Yes, a deal! I can provide you with some intel and it will point you to your foe…that foe is who you seek right?”

The prophet nodded strongly, the remaining snot flying out and spraying all over the apostle’s robe, a line of crystal clear snot hanging from his nose.

Kieran couldn’t help but avert his eyes a little.

He suddenly realized this prophet seemed to know a lot more than he imagined. He should even know something secretive about this world.

As for the ‘foe’ that he claimed to see?

Kieran didn’t think the prophet was referring to Broker.

Aside from the fact that Broker would have set layers of protection around himself, he wasn’t someone a common prophet could find him. If it was so easy to locate Broker, the grass around his grave would have grown to a jungle, those who wanted to kill the bastard were numerous, like a school of carp moving down a stream.

Besides that, the protection from the big city would render this common prophet useless. Moreover, he was just someone who could peek at the surface, how did he ‘see’ so many things at once?

Then, what caused the prophet to say something like that? Something so ‘accurate’?

It was simple.

It was a kind of negotiation tactic.

If he was really how the prophet claimed, it was natural that he had more than one enemy and among these enemies, there must be someone that he really wanted to remove.

Given the circumstances, it wasn’t that surprising if the prophet said he could find the enemy for Kieran. It was fair to even consider it as accurate.

Although he knew it was false, Kieran was very happy to know what kind of secretive news the prophet knew.

The prophet was ecstatic when he saw Kieran’s nod, he said, “Your foe is hiding here!”

His mouth then moved but nothing was heard, as though he was a fish pulled out from the water.

However, it seemed like the prophet did not realize what he had done for he continued to speak silently.

The apostle realized something was wrong, reaching out and covering the prophet’s mouth but it was too late.

The sun outside the window started to turn gloomy, the shadows becoming darker.

The gloomy sunlight lost its radiance and the dark shadow felt colder than before.

Crack, crack!

A layer of ice formed on the floor of the little chapel, noises due to freezing filled the room and everything that the ice touched was frozen and distorted. the table and chairs were twisted like a towel, the candles and candlesticks were reverted to its liquid state and gathered into a puddle. A human figure started to take form from the puddle of melted candle, reeking of oil.

The apostle and the prophet were frozen, they couldn’t see what had happened.

Kieran was also frozen but his sight captured everything that happened.

He looked at the world around him slowly losing its color and he curled his lips into a smile.

It wasn’t the handy work of a monster, at least not any common monster!

The culprit behind this had possession of a very chaotic power of faith.

A god similar to the Old Book? Or…

The guesses in his heart made Kieran stand there quietly, waiting for the culprit to show itself.

The human wax figure finally completed its formation and walked to the apostle.

“Foolish idiots!” It commented.

“Damn coward!” It commented on the prophet and then looked at Kieran.

“Arrogant Idiot. You have no idea who you are messing with! Who you say? It’s…”

The wax figure wanted to talk further but it suddenly realized something was wrong. It wanted to retreat but it was too slow.

Kieran, who should be frozen, raised his hand, the ice on the surface shattering and his left hand grabbing the wax figure by the neck. With a little strength, the neck, made of wax, started to crack.

However, the wax human figure didn’t panic. Instead, it laughed coldly.

It transformed its wax hands into a pair of sharp blades and thrust them towards Kieran.

Suddenly, the wax figure felt a terrifying heat from its neck.

Its body and hands melted fast, even quicker than how long it took form earlier.

The wax liquid then started to vaporize!

It wasn’t scared of melting because it could simply reform but being vaporized?

It was impossible for the wax figure to regain its body!

The fear in its heart instantly occupied its mind and it said, “Spare me! I’ll hand over the ‘key’ forever…”

The cries ended abruptly, the fierce Devil Flame drowning the wax figure and melting its body rapidly. Kieran watched quietly, not even caring when the melted body revealed a floating crystal ball inside it.

He waited until the wax figure truly died, then Kieran turned his attention to the crystal ball.

The crystal ball was the size of a fist and it was reflecting Kieran’s image.

[Name: ???]

[Type: Wonder Item]

[Rarity: ???]

[Attack: ???]

[Defense: ???]

[Attribute: ???]

[Effect: ???]

[Prerequisite: ???]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: ???]

[Remark: ???]

…

The series of question marks made Kieran frown.

It seemed like either his level of Mystical Knowledge couldn’t decipher this item or he had to get himself some specialized knowledge to decipher this.

Facing the unknown, Kieran didn’t simply touch the crystal ball, he allowed it to continue floating while he looked at the apostle and prophet.

The black and white faded, the two of them freed from the frozen state.

Both of them looked at Kieran again.

One of them had a hardened posture and one of them was weeping badly.

The pale apostle then sat straight and said, “I’ve seen your Majesty’s background and also understood your identity.”

…

The apostle was saying the same thing from earlier.

His expression did not change at all.

Even that weird looking dagger returned to his sleeve, and when he pulled it out, the prophet stopped the apostle again with the same exact words.

Then, the monster from the wax appeared again.

Kieran grabbed it again and burned it with Devil Flame.

The wax figure was instantly vaporized and another crystal ball appeared in front of Kieran.

The same thing happened again, the apostle, the weeping prophet, the dagger, and the wax monster forming for a third time.

Kieran frowned, he didn’t perform any extra movements.

He waited for the cycle to move on and burned the puddle of wax before the figure even took form.

The crystal balls increased to 3.

The three crystal balls swirled around Kieran like a satellite.

…

Meanwhile, in an unknown space, someone was watching the scene with the utmost attention, the culprit laughing heavily with malicious intent.

“It’s just the third time! This is just the start for you!”

The culprit laughed again. It had been a while since he played games like this.

The qualified target that appeared all of a sudden made him very happy. He was eager and disregarded all consequences to pull his target into this little game.

It had been a while since he saw this kind of delicious food, but he was still holding back.

Perfect table manners would surely make the food taste better.

So he waited patiently, waiting for his ‘food’ to make a mistake.

When the food made a mistake, it would ferment and bring out the true taste.

However, the culprit realized his food was unlike others.

10 times!

20 times!

30 times!

The food did not change his target, not even once! He was burning the right option every single time.

“Hmph! Very careful I see, but how long can you last? You will eventually change your target! It’s like those Sanctuary Knights who swore never to harm the innocent. Around how many times did the knight change his target to the apostle and prophet? 101? Or 102? Don’t worry, I will wait patiently.”

Seconds turned into minutes.

Kieran was still attacking the wax figure for the 200th times and it made the culprit a little restless.

The wax figure did not form out of nothing, the table manners weren’t something he could simply use either. Everything that happened came from his powers and each time the wax figure died, his powers would decrease a little.

For every second that went by in the ‘table manners’, his powers would decrease more.

‘I have to change the plan!’

He thought.

He then utilized the power outside the ‘dining table’.

The black and white in that world started to change.

Little scales started to appear on the apostle and covered his entire body, his nails growing and his teeth becoming fangs. In a breath’s time, the apostle transformed into a scaly monster.

Crunch!

The monster turned around and chomped the head off the prophet, then started to eat the prophet’s body.

Blood and flesh flew and sprayed the ground red.

Kieran watched everything, he waited for the wax figure to appear and then vaporized it into steam with his Devil Flame again.

“Why! Why don’t you attack the monster!”

“The apostle has transformed into a monster, you should attack him first!”

Angry roars echoed in the void.

The culprit was not happy with the result, so he tried again.

This time, the apostle monster did not chew on the prophet anymore. After it quickly chomped off the prophet’s head, the scaly monster jumped to Kieran.

Kieran didn’t counterattack though, he dodged and waited for the wax figure to burn it into steam.

Even after the prophet became a monster, it didn’t change Kieran’s choice.

Another 300 times later, the culprit in the void went silent.

He realized this qualified prey was unlike any others that he had encountered in the past.

His body was growing weaker by the second and it was a sign that he had lost this prey.

He sighed and released the prey from the hunt, imprinting the prey’s image into his mind.

He swore he would never play games with this person again, so he turned around and went to leave.

While he was cleaning up his traces, he heard something swallowing its saliva.

Based on the noise alone, he could tell this thing was very hungry, and more importantly, it wasn’t himself.

Without a second thought, he hastened his speed but an invisible mouth bit his tentacles and dragged him outside.

“Get off me! Damn it! Bastard without any table manners! Get off me!”

He shouted loudly but the mouth did not release him, instead dragging him away faster.

He was also munched on as he was dragged away.