The Devil’s Cage

Mr. Big’s enraged eyes were locked at a spot not far from where he stood as he shouted. Kieran followed Mr. Big’s gaze, turning his eyes in that direction as well. Among the ruins of the explosions, a middle-aged man in a formal outfit was smiling at Mr. Big.

It was Sphendix’s secretary, Trumbo.

Kieran recognized the man as soon as he laid eyes on him. Although he had not met him before, he remembered his name, looks and position from the files Mr. Big had given him about the Sphendix Corporation.

His position in the company had caught Kieran’s attention. Trumbo was the top ranking officer of the company, surpassing even the security consultant, Kailuark the Executioner.

Kieran had listed Trumbo as Mr. Big’s potential source. Mr. Big had never mentioned anything about his source in Sphendix, but the list was a short one. After all, not many people had access to Sphendix’s top level secrets.

The situation before his eyes confirmed that Trumbo had indeed been Mr. Big’s source, although obviously he had betrayed him.

As for the reason why?

Trumbo had not really been on Mr. Big’s side to begin with, and he had never really served Sphendix either.

He’d had his own agenda in approaching Sphendix and Mr. Big, and he had silently juggled both rulers of the city on his palm.

Considering that Paul had known about the timing of the explosion, Trumbo must have had a third identity as well. He had been the director of Paul’s orphanage and the teacher who had taught Paul all about [Mystical Knowledge].

The moment Trumbo walked out of the ruins, Sphendix and his security consultant team were nowhere to be seen, Kieran’s uncertainty about Trumbo’s identity had instantly been cleared. Trumbo had been the mastermind behind everything, from curing Sphendix’s terminal illness to the beast attacks, to the most recent explosion before Kieran.

If the explosion had been arranged by Sphendix himself, he would have been leading his team out in victory at the moment instead of sending out his secretary.

Unless Sphendix himself was already dead.

Kieran could not help but take several deep breaths as he collected his thoughts about the case. Most of his doubts had been cleared, except for two.

First, why had Paul left his forearm at the attack scene?

And second, if a player had followed the normal flow of the dungeon, they would have eventually met Trumbo as well, so how would that player have cleared the dungeon if the difficulty had obviously exceeded a third time dungeon?

Kieran could not come up with an answer. Every theory that he came up with ended with the player dying when they faced Trumbo.

Was there something that he had missed? He quickly scanned over his surroundings out of instinct and frowned hard.

Meanwhile, Trumbo looked at Kieran.

”I did not expect you-”

Trumbo was interrupted before he could finish his words.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The silver revolver in Mr. Big’s hand was fired. Mr. Big looked viciously angry as he pulled the trigger. He did not care about losing some of his men, but a betrayal that could wipe out his whole forces was not something that he could tolerate.

Rage had taken over his logic and senses. He’d picked up the weapon that he had prepared for Kieran and attacked Trumbo. He wanted to crush Trumbo for his betrayal.

Mr. Big was very confident with the revolver and the custom-made bullets in his hand, but confidence alone could not alter reality.

The custom-made bullets stopped in mid-air, unable to advance toward Trumbo, even though they possessed firepower and speed far greater than a normal bullet’s.

It was like a discounted version of Mr. Big’s test to Kieran, but the only difference was that Kieran was on Mr. Big’s side now.

Just before Mr. Big’s bullets were nullified, Kieran had thrown three more grenades at Trumbo’s feet.

The moment the bullets had stopped, the grenades had exploded before Trumbo, the immense firepower blasting the grenade sharples and engulfing the man.

”Did you kill him?” Mr. Big asked.

Kieran did not even give a damn about Mr. Big’s question. He pulled out two more grenades, but he did not launch them at Trumbo, even though he knew he was not dead. To be precise, he was not even hurt.

[Explosion: Inflicts 300 Damage to Target HP, Target has Powerful Force Field Barrier, Resisted 300 Damage, 0 Damage Inflicted to Target HP…]

[Explosion: Inflicts 300 Damage to Target HP, Target has Powerful Force Field Barrier, Resisted 300 Damage, 0 Damage Inflicted to Target HP…]

...

Three notifications popped up simultaneously. Kieran was shocked by Trumbo’s defense, which was even stronger than [Primus Scale]’s defensive abilities. He knew what he had to do next though.

Instead of pursuing victory, he had to destroy the conversion magic circle.

Ever since Kieran had discovered the basic structure of the Reverse Heptagram, he had been wondering where the conversion magic circle was.

Initially, Kieran had believed that it was still inside the Sphendix Headquarters, on the floor only Sphendix and Paul had access to.

However, after the explosion, Kieran had started thinking that he might have been looking in the wrong direction.

He wanted to clear his doubts about the location, so when he discovered something unusual at the explosion site, he scanned it out of instinct.

They were explosions traces! The Sphendix Headquarters building had been used as the blast point, but the traces were very well-organized.

Even if Kieran did not look at the building from above, he could tell by looking at it from the side. Those particular traces had led him to realize that Trumbo had used the explosion to form a unique conversion magic circle.

Kieran was not sure how Trumbo had been able to pull it off, but there was one thing he knew for sure. He could never let Trumbo finish the magic circle!

A magic circle of that magnitude would be extremely powerful and horrendous if completed.

Kieran tried to stop Trumbo by throwing a grenade in an ingenious way so that it landed on the explosion traces.

Kieran himself was watching Trumbo’s actions. If Trumbo moved, he would stop him right away.

Contrary to Kieran’s expectations though, Trumbo was standing still, looking at him. A bad feeling suddenly rose in Kieran’s heart.

Boom!

The two grenades exploded, but amid the explosions, Trumbo’s evil, mocking laugh could be heard.

”Oh, unexpected one, is this where you think my defensive power comes from? It’s too late now! The moment I appeared before you, the magic circle was already completed!”

Trumbo was approaching Kieran and Mr. Big as he spoke.

Until suddenly…

A short dagger silently appeared behind Trumbo and stabbed him right through the chest!

The tip of the dagger pierced Trumbo’s chest as bright blood oozed out from the wound, dying his outfit red.