The Devil’s Cage

Anderson and Holuff stood side by side in the shadows.

In front of them was a stone alleyway and at the end of the alley way was the temple of Lady Calamity.

This place was usually filled with puddles of filthy water and dirt, and even though several priests of the temple cleaned it up daily, it was hard to make the place clean.

But now?

It wasn’t just cleaned up, it was filled with many devoted people.

Everyone showed utmost devotion as they knelt down on both knees, put their hands together, and prayed, as if they had forgotten the qualms and hatred towards the place that they showed during other times.

“Humans are always so realistic,” Holuff’s eyes showed a sense of mockery.

As a Demon Hunter, Holuff had been through countless similar situations. Similar things happened to different people. If it wasn’t because the Demon Hunters had a strong belief in themselves, they would have crumbled a long time ago.

Still, a little grudge was inevitable, Demon Hunters were not saints after all.

They were just a bunch of pitiful groups of people from a certain perspective.

If they hadn’t lost something important to the cruelty of life, who would want to become a Demon Hunter?

Many Demon Hunter parents even considered sending their children to a normal family, but in the end, they did not do it.

They were unwilling to part with their own blood.

Bloody was thicker than water.

Moreover, even if they sent their children to a normal family, the children would still encounter danger.

Pagans and monsters were never picky eaters.

If any normal family encountered the evil beings, they wouldn’t end well.

Therefore, the Demon Hunter parents might as well keep their children by their side and teach them crucial techniques to protect themselves.

The important decision would be delayed to the day where the children came of age.

Of course, every single descendent of the Demon Hunter basically inherited the family’s duty and became a Demon Hunter themselves when they came of age.

Since the children were heavily influenced by their parents throughout their whole lives, they would eventually tread the path that their parents took.

There were also some rebellious civilian children who thought it was cool to become an inherited Demon Hunter. They were then beaten up by their parents together and still couldn’t change their children’s minds.

“Humans are conflicted beings after all. It’s not just that, we are also the same,” Anderson sighed.

After spending decades in a dungeon, the old Demon Hunter gained tenacity and tolerance that other Demon Hunters didn’t have. When he saw the scene before his eyes, other than sighing with emotion, he did not mock the people.

Or rather, the old Demon Hunter was paying attention to other things. He looked at the end of the temple.

There, everything remained the same.

Several priests stood there in either a muddled state or astonishment as they looked at the situation before their temple. They had no reaction to the unexpected situation.

The statue inside the temple didn’t even have a speckle of light, one would have to climb up and wipe the dust away.

“Nothing has changed. That one is still… hey.”

When Holuff also saw the situation in front of his eyes, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

With something as catastrophic as the Black Cataclysm happening in the past, when the temple of Lady Calamity was first built, it was flooded with people.

But as time went by, people soon realized the differences in the lazy.

She would not respond to her believers, let alone blessing her believers with powers.

Even the statue sculpted based on her looks did not have the related ‘divine glory’.

At first, people thought it was just a test from Lady Calamity, but a year went by, followed by two, three, four…. Everything remained the same.

Lady Calamity didn’t even lay an eye on her believers.

On the other hand, a new batch of War God Temple believers had completed their baptism and acquired powers beyond the common.

Paling when compared, Lady Calamity’s temple started to decline in the fifth year.

With instigation from some people from behind, the temple was quickly left with only several truly devoted believers. They didn’t have any powers, all they could do was clean the place and perform other miscellaneous chores—that was the reason why they were able to survive until now.

10 years later after the Black Cataclysm, people had nothing but disgust and qualms for Lady Calamity.

If it wasn’t for the plague outbreak, the people would probably continue their resentful attitude.

In the end?

Two or more generations later, Lady Calamity’s image will be fixed. It would be difficult for her to make a comeback from there.

It was without a doubt an ideal scene that War God Temple wished to see, but they failed in the end.

The plague came again, and this time, the outbreak happened in the cathedral of War God Temple.

People amassed before the temple of Lady Calamity and prayed.

Although the Lady did not and would not care, following the arrival of death, more and more people amassed in front of the temple.

Holuff could already picture the crowded scene, he didn’t have any further thoughts about it.

Both God of War and Lady Calamity were a threat in this retired Demon Hunter’s eyes.

Their ‘divine duty’ was sufficient to prove it.

The former had to ceaselessly instigate ‘conflict’ or ‘war’ to be able to grow strong.

Peace? It was non-existent.

The latter? The Lady was much more dangerous.

Compared to the God of War who had emotions, the latter was much more of a beast. Even up until now, all she could do was follow her instincts and lay dormant in the south. She had no divine abilities but had similar powers.

Of course, she wasn’t like this initially.

When she was first born, she was like the God of War. She had emotions like a normal human and was able to move freely, but after the Demon Hunters got involved, everything became different.

The leader of Wolf Sect used his life and a legacy Demon Hunter relic as offering and sealed Lady Calamity into her current state. Likewise, the Silent Night Secret Society councilmen as they were also caught by the seal.

Even though the seal wouldn’t last forever, lasting for several hundred years was not a problem.

Holuff knew it, Anderson also knew it.

The reason why they were here was to further their investigation.

It was an order from the Snake Sect heir.

The heir wanted accurate news about the plague.

As a matter of fact, even without Kieran’s orders, the two of them would come here for investigation.

No one could afford to be careless in front of the plague.

“That Lady is still in her ‘beast’ mode. The more people amass here, the more unwanted trouble they might cause. If the plague breaks out here… the casualty rate will only go up!”

Holuff was very worried as he had experienced the Black Cataclysm firsthand…

“Then are you going to persuade them to go away?” Anderson asked.

Holuff replied with a bitter smile

Persuade? He would if they would listen.

He was certain that if he really went up to the people and persuaded them to leave, the bunch of ‘devoted believers’ of Lady Calamity would surely throw him out.

If he ran into some hot-tempered ones, a brutal fight would surely break out.

“Let’s go. Let’s go to Colin, he should have a better way around this,” said Anderson before he headed to the direction of the Mist camp.

Holuff took another glance at the increasing number of people. He sighed in the end and followed his friend.

Meanwhile, in the cathedral of War God Temple, dinner was going on with a suppressed atmosphere.

Pak!

Suddenly, a deacon drinking soup passed out on the floor.

The clear clunk of the spoon when it hit the floor was louder than the falling thud, as if it was a pebble tossed into a calm lake.

All the people in the mess hall quickly covered their mouths and noses, avoiding the fallen deacon like the plague, all except for one.

While everyone was avoiding the fallen deacon, a person went up to attend to the deacon.

Gino! The young knight who gradually gained reputation in War God Temple and acknowledgement from many others.

Gino went up to the unconscious deacon and helped him up.

“Can you hear me?” Gino asked softly.

“C-Can! I am fine, please don’t burn me.”

The deacon was weak, his mind muddled, but his survival instincts allowed him to clearly express his thoughts.

“Don’t worry. You won’t be burned to death,” Gino assured the deacon.

He helped the deacon up by holding his waist and headed to a room in the corner of the cathedral.

Everyone made way for them nervously, but when they saw Gino’s running figure, they all showed a complicated expression.

Respect? A little.

Mocking? Probably a little too.

Disdain? There were also some.

Humans are complicated beings.

The believers were complicated and so was Gino.

As the one who caused the plague outbreak, his guilt exploded when the bishop in council ordered the men to burn the infected bodies.

‘I just want to live!’ he kept telling himself.

Then, he begged the bishop in council to assign him to take care of the infected.

Was it redemption? Not exactly, but Gino knew he would feel better by doing so.

Painful moans and groans filled this corner.

This corner was once the storeroom of War God Temple. Gino asked for the storeroom to be transformed into a temporary care center.

Inside the care center, there were almost a hundred infected and plus the one he was holding… there should be a total of 100.

Gino thought of the number in his heart, he didn’t actually count the people because he was afraid that the number would decrease.

The heavy wooden door opened up.

Several infected believers inside the care center who still remained conscious looked up and saw Gino bring in a new patient. The infected believers showed a grateful look.

Gino smiled and quickly lowered his head. He dared not accept the grateful gaze from the infected.

After he laid the deacon onto an empty bed, Gino went ahead to check and take care of the others, as if by doing so he could decrease his sense of guilt.

“Thank you. Thank you Knight Gino.”

Everyone who remained conscious expressed their thanks to Gino when he checked up on them.

Whether it was a prestigious priest or a normal deacon and knight, they all thanked him sincerely.

There wasn’t any false gratitude at all because they knew this young knight had saved them from the fiery end.

Every single thank you was like a needle poking into Gino’s heart.

He started to feel suffocated, hence he had to do more things to distract himself, but by doing so, more thanks came his way.

It was like a vicious cycle and only Gino himself knew what was going on in his heart.

The others?

They thought they were looking at a real knight, a knight with noble traits, only heard of in legends or literature.

The moonlight shone through the window and cast a layer of pure white brilliance over him.

Several priests looked at Gino quietly and exchanged gazes, sighing softly.

“Compared to him, we are really despicable,” said one of the priests.

No one argued about that. The slightly younger priest wanted to argue but when his lips moved, all he said was, “This is just an order from the lord bishop.”

They were just on guard duty.

Mortor agreed to Gino’s request but that didn’t mean the bishop in council didn’t have any precautions taken.

He knew how contagious the plague was. The slightest misstep would end in a catastrophic end. Therefore, precautions were a must. Likewise, some secret orders, like killing the infected who tried to leave the quarantine area.

However, that didn’t mean the bishop in council didn’t actively seek for a way to solve the situation.

Do note that all these infected were his Majesty’s important property.

As the most loyal believer of God of War, he ought to protect those properties on behalf of his god.

Therefore, from the second where the plague broke out, Mortor the bishop in council had been contacting his God.

As for the result?

The increasing number of infected in the storeroom was an obvious answer.

God of War’s powers were destined to be unable to truly counter the plague unless he poured in more of his power to expel the plague, but… his efforts would pale in comparison to the situation.

He could manage if the infected numbers were a few.

Trying to ‘bless’ all of his believers? Totally impossible!

In fact, aside from all of his believers, he couldn’t bless all the clergies in the cathedral alone with his power.

More importantly, as the plague spread, his beastly rival started to grow restless in her dormant state.

Trickery, schemes, destruction!

Mortor clearly heard the shout from his God and it was without a doubt that the plague was the ‘God’s’ handy work.

After War God Temple decided to team up with the other factions, they were wantonly attacked.

Other than that, what else could this plague be? Everything was too coincidental.

The great explosion at Qitar Bay, Edatine VI falling ill, all followed by the plague in War God Temple. Disaster after disaster caught people off guard, the cascading events seeming like the deliberate planning of someone.

“Is there a ‘spy’ of that ‘God’ among us?” Mortor wondered.

Although the alliance with Snake Sect definitely wasn’t a secret, it wasn’t something the public would know either.

While Mortor was pondering upon whom the spy from the ‘God’ could be, knocks sounded on his door.

It was Cabio, the bishop in charge of Dark Hall and also the vice director of the Inquisition.

The director of the Inquisition was none other than Mortor himself.

Donning a black robe, Cabio’s face looked rather aged but his eyes were sharp.

Right after he came in, he said, “My lord, you are way too merciful.”

What he said was without reason and end, but Mortor knew what he was referring to.

“Gino is a talent, but we can’t afford to lose the big ones because of the smaller ones. Besides, who could guarantee that the store room is safe? Don’t forget that they are breathing the same air as us. Burning them all would be the safest way.”

Cabio finished with a nonchalant tone, looking at Mortor.

Several seconds later, the bishop in council sighed.

“I’ll leave it to you then, Cabio.”

“Yes, lord bishop.”

A bow later, Cabio turned around and left.

Looking at Cabio’s disappearing figure, Mortor sighed once more.

“I’m sorry my child. This is all for the sake of our lord’s glory.”