The Devil’s Cage

All of the believers were in shock as they saw the image above Bloody Mary’s head.

It was the first time they saw the true look of the god they believed in.

Compared to their abstract first impressions, the detailed look made much more of an impact in people’s hearts.

It was like the God of Mist looked like this from the very start.

He had the rampant horns and a powerful body and also the heart to fully protect the believers.

Yes, protect!

That was what the white flower in his hand was, it is the protection of our lord!

Unknowingly, every believer viewed themselves as the white flower.

They knelt down and prayed again.

After another round of praying, everyone looked at the faint image excitedly.

“This is our lord?”

They looked at the image deeply and branded the image in their hearts.

Several believers who were good at drawing started to sketch with paper and pencil.

As the strokes moved, the look of the God of Mist was drawn on a piece of paper.

Bloody Mary dispersed the image after 7 portraits were drawn.

It could put up the image for as long as it liked but it did not do so.

“The number of portraits fits our lord,” said Bloody Mary as it pointed at the seven portraits.

Every god has its own symbol, therefore the God of Mist should have one too. However, the current God of Mist, Kieran, who was also its boss, lacked an intact symbol, so it ought to perfect the symbol for its boss.

Bloody Mary deemed the number 7 fitting, its boss was very fond of the number.

“We shall follow our lord’s will.”

The believers bowed after one another.

Seven complete portraits were placed on top of the altar set up in the temporary hideout, the incomplete portraits tossed into the flames after a quick prayer.

“Fire and flame is our lord’s weapon, it is also a skill that we must learn to use.”

Bloody Mary raised its left hand and an ember sprung up on its left index finger.

The ember it pulled out was a fake, an illusion. It could never fool a powerful person but it was enough to convince the believers.

They couldn’t tell apart the truth from the false.

Of course, even if they could tell the difference, Bloody Mary could just simply talk its way out.

Ding!

While the believers were staring at the flame on Bloody Mary’s left finger, a piece of Gold Purton appeared in its left hand. It tossed the coin up with its thumb, producing a clear chime as it swirled up, caught by its left hand and then pressed against the back of its right hand.

“A gold coin is the shield our lord granted us. When you feel lost, it will give you an accurate answer. Heads to agree, tails to deny. Our lord peeks into the mist and provides us with answers.”

Bloody Mary uttered the last symbol of the God of Mist it had in mind.

It understood its boss too well, especially how diligent and thrifty he was.

Stingy?

That’s your word.

It had a contract , so it could only speak honestly: he is diligent and thrifty.

The number 7, fire, and gold coin.

After telling the believers the three main symbols of God of Mist, Bloody Mary turned to the exit.

All the believers quieted down, they knew what would happen next.

Even for the ‘kin’ of God of Mist, he was unable to guarantee his own safe return, that was why he eagerly told the believers the symbols of our lord.

Though the further Bloody Mary walked away, the more suffering they felt.

“My lord, I’ll send you out!”

Shegal stepped up to Bloody Mary and spoke on behalf of the believers

“Mm,” Bloody Mary nodded and then glanced over every one of the believers in the temporary hide out, as though it was imprinting their faces in its mind. It stared at the believers for almost 10 seconds.

When Bloody Mary’s figure vanished beyond the door, some believers couldn’t hold back their tears anymore, but none cried out loud, covering their mouths and weeping silently.

Their lord had gone into the battlefield for them, they shouldn’t burden their lord anymore with the trivial.

Bloody Mary heard the soft weeping, showing a very compassionate look once more.

“Don’t need to feel bad for me. Don’t feel sad, we will eventually meet again in our lord’s kingdom. I’m just taking my leave now.”

Bloody Mary nodded slightly and said softly, and before Shegal could reply, it quickly walked into the night.

After Shegal saw Bloody Mary off, he came back to his senses and stood straight, leaning forward a little and uttered softly, “My lord, please go well, we will try our best to catch up to your footsteps.”

He took a deep breath and felt the cold of the night in Sicar. His eyes, however, were stern and burning with determination.

He then stood straight and continued, “We… will meet again in the divine kingdom!”

After his voice subsided, Shegal went back into the temporary hideout.

Lord ‘kin’ was clear about leaving Shegal in charge of the temporary hideout, hence the young man became a leader for the believers.

“We will follow our lord’s will, we will bring our brothers and sisters here, to our lord’s protection! Not only Sicar, even around Sicar City, anyone who believes in our lord will be considered one of us!”

“Split up into East, South, West, North, four groups, spreading out and searching for the others. All of you must return tomorrow, by nightfall,” Shegal said.

“Yes sir!”

Naturally, the four armed ex-guards became the leaders of four different search groups.

Under Shegal’s cover, they rode out of Sicar’s west gate.

Shegal was originally the person in charge of the west gate and most of them once served at west gate as guards.

The night grew darker.

No one noticed four search groups riding out of the city.

Or more accurately, even if someone noticed their absence, they’d turn a blind eye because of some special influence.

In the dark, Bloody Mary deactivated its illusion and then walked up to the city walls. It stood high up and watched the four search groups ride out. The sky was dark, the stars were dimmed, and the moon shyly hid behind the dark clouds..

Fuuuuuu!

The night wind from the north blew ceaselessly, the fire in the braziers waving left and right. Bloody Mary turned around and walked slowly into the city.

No one noticed its body, only it could hear its own footsteps.

Its mission wasn’t over yet.

Bloody Mary always did its best to carry out the missions given by its boss, including this one.

Though it still had time left, so perhaps it could perform better?

Bloody Mary suddenly looked beyond the walls and into the horizon.

Some thoughts later, it vanished.

…

Carl bit his tongue strongly. The pain woke him up immediately and the blabbers in his ears turned quiet, lowering his body and touching his own horse.

“Phernesa, where are we?” Carl asked.

He wanted to use a simpler way to find out their location but his eyes were blinded.

A while ago, when the blabbers exploded in his ears, it robbed his vision, his eyes unable to see the light of day.

Darkness descended all too suddenly, panicking him, and he ALMOST became a monster back then!

Fortunately, he struggled and broke free at the very last second, but he was also blinded in the process.

He touched his eye sockets and noticed his eyeballs were missing.

Before he could feel sad or furious about losing his eyes, he told himself that he must calm down. Only with calmness would he be able to oppose the blabbers in his ears.

“We are almost at Sicar,” Phernesa, the horse, replied accurately.

As though because of the danger that they overcame earlier, Carl and Phernesa’s bond grew stronger, the last wall in their communication torn down, now they could easily understand each other’s thoughts.

Phernesa seemed to have become smarter as well. It did not just care about Carl, it even comforted him after he lost his sight.

“Carl, we are arriving soon.”

Phernesa delivered the thoughts to its master and its gallops grew louder and clearer, but at the very next moment, the gallops were forced to an abrupt stop.

A malicious presence was coming closer.

Carl couldn’t see but his perception became sharper.

He grabbed his sword and performed a forward slash

The blessing from War God Temple on the crossguard was long gone, the ruby gloomy, but the blade was still as sharp as ever.

As a noble with a wealthy family and having pride in his strength, the sword Carl used wasn’t just some rusty iron. Other than the blessing of War God Temple, the sword was had extra enchantments to increase keenness.

While clashing with another common sword, Carl would only need two strikes to break the opposite’s blade.

The forward slash was infused with Carl’s full strength and it slashed the malicious presence precisely.

Through the feedback from his black, Carl could tell what he just cut was a spear.

A wooden pole with an iron tip at the front end, such weapon was issued to the lowest rank infantry and many bandits resolved to such weapons as well.

It wasn’t just cheap, it was simple and effective. It would only require four to five trained men to form a combat group that one could not afford to underestimate.

Most of the time, spear infantries would never move alone.

After he cut the spear into two, Carl leaned forward on his horse. Carl was a strong young noble that required no riders with him during a mission, so he knew what he should do against a spear infantry group.

Right after Carl leaned forward, four long spears grazed his back.

Although he couldn’t see, Carl could picture the disappointment on the infantries’ face after their attacks missed. At the same time, Carl seized the moment and slipped down his horse, calculating the length of the spear and lunging out to close the distance between him and the attackers, swinging his sword horizontally.

Pak! Pak!

Blood spurted and hot blood sprayed all over Carl’s body, his hands and face dyed red, but Carl didn’t have the time to wipe the blood away. He turned around and slid under Phernesa’s belly, lunging forward with his sword on the other side.

Pak Pak!

As his sword stabbed into the attacker’s body, blood spurted out like a fountain. Carl, who was closest to the attackers, was showered by blood from head to toe.

Carl unconsciously touched his face, and then… he saw blood!

It was very blurry but he did see the red in front of him.

What?!

Carl shook his head strongly. He had touched his eye sockets before and was certain that he lost his eyeballs, all he had left were two hollow eye sockets, so how could he see?

A bad thought appeared in Carl’s mind.

He turned around to his horse Phernesa.

The horse was absent of a strong body, it had lost its wavy fur and did not have the energetic eyes, all that was left was a carcass, the carcass of a horse, strong white bones coupled with the soul fire burning in its eye sockets.

Carl raised his hands and saw no flesh and blood on it, skeletal fingers moving according to his will.

“I am dead?” Carl muttered in disbelief, but he did not make a scene out of it.

The soul fire that burned in his eye sockets jumped vigorously.

Then, he suddenly thought of something and lowered his head for a check.

He saw the attackers dressed in a very similar way to the soldiers of Sicar.

Shock!

Carl was shocked as though a lightning bolt struck him, his body wobbling weakly.

“I killed my own men? I killed my own men?”

He questioned himself.

The blabbers in his ears got clearer. Carl curled up his body, the soul fire in his eye sockets jumping rapidly again. It wasn’t vigorous jumps though, it was like the flickering flame of a dying candle.

“Carl, don’t give up! Carl, believe in yourself!”

Phernesa’s voice came into his mind.

As a horse, Phernesa had no idea what had just happened, but it knew if this continued, that bastard who had been watching them would get what he sought.

In fact, that bastard already came forth.

“Are you in pain? Do you want to scream? But you can’t even make a sound, right? Isn’t it painful?”

As the ghastly voice sounded, a deer casually walked out from the woods.

When the deer came out, Phernesa neighed cautiously.

“It’s not enough! It’s still too far away! When I watched my children be slaughtered by your hands and watched my guts ripped away from my body, I too wanted to shout, but my tongue was ripped away. I couldn’t make a noise back then. I could only watch, watch in silence….” said the deer as it moved closer.

The deer finally came out from the dark and revealed itself under the dimmed moonlight.

Its head was still intact, with several scars on it, but the antlers were broken, replaced by dried twigs. There was only a small amount of flesh on its body and on its bones were many cut marks and concentrated bite marks.

“It’s not us! We did none of that!” Phernesa argued.

“But they are the same as you, invaders of my home! Bow, suffer the pain of the curse!”

The skeletal deer’s eyes shone in a scarlet brightness.

“No! We are just running away from our enemy…”

“Sigh.”

Phernesa wanted to explain, to dissolve the misunderstanding but a sigh suddenly sounded at the critical moment, shocking both sides right away.

Phernesa and the skeletal deer looked towards the source of the sigh.

There was a man in a hoodless long, gray robe. On his normal looking face was utmost compassion and he was walking closer to them. He ignored the malicious presence of the skeletal deer and stood beside Carl, laying his hand on the crown of the skull.

“Oh, lost child, you have suffered.”

His voice sounded sad, like he himself was the one who suffered.

Carl, who was troubled by the wicked voice, trembled, looking up in a lost state.

He saw the man in front of him, who showed the same amount of compassion to his skeletal face, the gaze from the man grew pitiful.

“W-W-Who are you?” asked Carl.

When he asked, he remembered that his voice couldn’t be heard by others, so what was the use for asking?

However, to his surprise, the man in front of him heard him, and the man replied calmly.

“I was once a man who suffered, just like you. My lord saved me and bore my pain for me. At the same time, my lord saw your suffering too. That’s why I am here, my brother,” Bloody Mary said with utmost compassion.

It then moved to step in front of Carl and block him. Its chest was then perforated by the twig antlers, yet the smile on its face did not diminish a bit. It looked at Carl with a kind look and said, “I will bear your pain for you.”