The Devil’s Cage

Heavy wind blew across the night sky, the waves were high at sea.

Despite the rumbling waves, the huge battleships cruised on smoothly as if they were on calm waters.

The cannoneer in the cannon turret had struck its target precisely again.

Under the relentless bombing from the fleet of battleships, the targeted island was completely lost in sight.

General Barry squinted his eyes on the fiery island, he never stopped his men from continuing the relentless bombardment.

He was waiting, he was waiting for that one person. From the start, General Barry wasn’t after the island itself but that particular person.

Smulder!

The only Holy Knight left on earth was the target that he sought to destroy.

ROOOOAR!

Suddenly, a deafening roar came from the island under fire. A rampant aura blasted off from the island and onto the surface of the sea.

The soldiers who were behind the cannon turrets were dumbstruck by the sudden roar. They felt an unknown fear rising in their heart, robbing them of their actions. If it wasn’t for their discipline, they might have already ran for their lives.

Though standing on the spot was the best they could do, anything else wasn’t possible, let alone operating the cannon turret.

The bombing stopped, leaving the fire and the island to a pause.

From the loud noise of the bombardment to the sudden silence, it was as if the world was suddenly frozen in time.

General Barry smiled.

”Finally, you couldn’t hold back anymore?”

The general waved his hand.

The long-awaited alchemy fighters ascended from the lower deck with the elevators.

Everyone of the them was strong in physique but cold in manner. They were equipped with the most advanced weaponry and were standing in formation behind General Barry like a pole.

The most concerning part were the three boxes that the alchemy fighters brought up on deck.

There were two small boxes and one big one. The small boxes though were still as big as a car and the big one was in the size of a house.

”Go, my fighters! This is your first battle since you’ve returned to this world and it will be the battle that spreads your name far and wide! The annihilation of the Sanctuary is the best achievement for you all!”

General Barry said with a sonorous voice, the alchemy fighters stepped up one after another and jumped into the sea without taking any transportation to the island.

While his fighters were jumping into the sea, General Barry’s eyes were gazing at the island.

”Come on, Smulder! You’ve been waiting for this fight for so long right? Aren’t you jealous, envious of the God of Earth’s achievements of eliminating the invasion of the East Coast mystical realm? Now I’ve set up the perfect stage for you, you better not disappoint me!”

General Barry was standing between the three boxes and as he spoke, he got more delighted. In the end, an uncontrollable laugh sounded across the deck.

General Barry had his reasons to be delighted because Smulder, as expected, was standing in the path of the alchemy fighters.

Smulder’s rugged face looked slightly confused.

Compared to General Barry, Smulder could clearly pick up the sulphuric smell from the rampant aura that flashed over before, he was very familiar with such aura.

It was 2567! Nikorei’s assistant!

Though, according to his arrangements, 2567 at most was able to escape the pathway but to blast out such an aura in a wide area…

”He broke through the Sanctuary Force filled dangers? Not too shabby! Nikorei has once again proven her sharp eyes. Though, it is more interesting this way! A bunch of alchemy fighters, a devil’s descendant plus a Sanctuary Archdeacon, seems like they might be able to put up a fight!”

Smulder muttered to himself while his eyes were glimmering in white.

...

Kieran had no idea what happened outside.

All he knew was that he was Kieran, a young man with a terminal disease and not some devil overlord.

The devil form that he was in was only a part of [Fusion Heart]’s power, it wasn’t really his body.

Kieran kept mumbling to himself, reminding him who he was as if he was chanting a spell.

However, no matter how clear his mind was, he couldn’t expel the illusions before him. It was as if he was really inside the realm of illusion. He transformed into that devil, feeling its emotions and experienced how the devil fought.

A year has passed, two years, three years...

Countless time has passed in Kieran’s illusion, it flew pass in the blink of an eye but it felt really long, to the point that Kieran had almost forgotten to remind himself with his self-mumbling.

Kieran experienced countless life and death battles in his devil form. He was getting used to it as time went on . It also allowed him to get used to the battle techniques of the devil.

All that was left in his life was fighting, constant fighting.

The meaning of his life was to fight!

Kieran shuttled pass countless battles until he came across that dash of white before his eyes again.

This time around, his body instinctively went over and grabbed the white color.

Upon contact, all Kieran felt was a pain, a pain that his body hadn’t felt for a long time appeared in his mind.

He tilted his head down to the round diamond tainted with blood in his hand, he was shocked.

The memories as a human that he had forgotten gushed out like a geyser.

”I...I…”

The mumbling sounded once more, forcing the huge devil body to a standstill.

He swung the sharp claws on his hand hard and plunged it into his magma chest, tearing his body apart.

As the devil’s body dispersed, Kieran’s human form fell out.

The illusory image around him started to splinter, shattering into pieces and disintegrated into dust.

When he came to, he realized he was leaning on the wall of the pathway that he was trapped in.

Schmidt was squatting before him, looking at him with worried eyes.

”How is it?” Schmidt asked.

”...” Kieran opened his mouth, he realized he couldn’t speak. On top of that, he felt like there was a burning charcoal stuck in his throat, burning him fiercely.

He instinctively raised his hand, wanted to signal Schmidt about his condition and it was then he realized he was holding onto the round diamond that has lost its luster and was tainted with blood.

[Name: Sanctuary Star (Damaged)]

[Type: Gemstones]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attribute: It contains the life energy of the Holy Knight of the previous generation!]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: It has no value at all since it is damaged!]

...

Kieran frowned and he turned his eyes to the system notification that kept on pinging since then.

[Foreign matter influence, the balance of Fusion Heart was broken]

[Creature of Desire devours the foreign matter, triggering Fusion Heart’s Imperfect Evolution]

[Authenticating Constitution, Spirit…]

[Authentication passed, Imperfect Evolution starts…]

[Devil Bloodline running rampant!]

[Imperfect Evolution interrupted!]

[Altering to Imperfect Special Evolution…]

[Reauthenticating Constitution, Spirit…]

[Reauthenticating failed, Constitution, Spirit hasn’t reach required rank…]

[Inspecting Fusion Heart, anomaly occurred in Imperfect Special Evolution, Extra Special Evolution begins…]

[Repulsion!]

[Repulsion!]

[Repulsion!]

[Puppet of flesh and blood conversion begins…]

[Foreign matter/energy detected, conversion halted!]

[Extra Special Evolution restarts…]

[Authenticated!]

[Extra Special Evolution complete!]

[Fusion Heart leveled up!]

...

[Name: Fusion Heart II]

[Type: Organ]

[Rarity: Above Epic]

[Attributes: 1. Transform Devil II, 2. Desire Summon II , 3. Saint Thorns ]

[Effects: 1. Fiery Sulphur II, 2. Eye of Evil II, 3. Body of Evil II, 4. Touch of the cardinal sins]

[Prerequisite: Constitution A, Spirit SS]

[Remark: This is a fusion organ fused with the heart of a human, the demon lord, and the creature of greed. Its power is indisputable but so does the backlash, even it has the life energy of a Holy Knight as a synthesizer. As the owner, you still need to have a powerful body and even more powerful will to tame it! It will grow stronger following your battles and if you are unable to grow with it, you will be dominated and converted into a puppet of flesh and blood!]

…...

[Transform Devil II: Your heart grants you power. When activated, you will take the form of the demon lord, 2 minute duration, 1 time per day]

[Desire Summon II: Your heart grants you control. When activated, you can summon the Creature of Greed, 2 minute duration, 1 time per day]

[Saint Thorns :If you did not choose to activate Transform Devil II or Desire Summon II, you will resist 25% of the damage when encountering holy energy. When you receive damage (regardless of holy damage), of Average, Strong and Powerful level, you can activate a ”Halo of Thorns” of different levels to reflect the damage you receive by 5%, 10%, 25% respectively. You will also be healed of Light, Medium, Heavily wounded state respectively. When you choose to activate Transform Devil II or Desire Summon II, Saint Thorns effect will temporarily halted.]

…....

[Fiery Sulphur II: Burning flames will follow the lineage of the devil like shadow. When casting Fire element spells, +1 elemental damage, extra Sulphuric Poison added on the spell. The requirements such as the gesture, incantations materials of Fire element spells are decreased by 60%, even if the skill failed to cast, you will only suffer a quarter of the magic repulsion]

[Eye of Evil II: The conviction of Desire is rooted deep inside your heart. Summon evil eye (secondary eye attack power) formed by the conviction of Desire to fight for you, 3 minute duration, 2 times per day]

[Body of Evil II: The combination of the devil and desire, chaos and sins but with a dash of light. Granted 250 extra HP, Stamina, acquire High Tensile Skin (absorb 200 damage from Strong attack or below), Medium Devil Skin (absorb 200 damage from Strong attack or below, extra defense point against Fire and Explosions); When facing Holy element attacks, you will receive 125% damage, special counter items will deal extra damage to you (included but not limited to blessed objects, holy objects etc.)]

[Touch of Cardinal Sins: The cardinal sins of desire flow in your blood. Consume 100 HP to summon either Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath or Envy to assist you. Consume 200 HP to summon Pride to assist you. The embodiment of sins shares your looks but each of them possess different abilities. The summons last for 1 minute, extra duration will cost extra HP.]

[Note: When target is in a panic, chaos, fear driven state or has extreme desire for something, they will be devoured by the respective embodiment of sins.]

...

”Extra Special Evolution? And Saint Thorns?”

After going through the notifications, Kieran subconsciously looked at the [Sanctuary Star] in his hand. He felt an after scare after experiencing all those illusory visions.

Although he has no idea why [Sanctuary Star] would complete the so-called Extra Special Evolution, if it didn’t and Kieran was converted into a puppet of flesh and blood, he would really wish he was dead rather than live like one.

While the thought lingered in his head, Kieran took a deep breath and looked at Schmidt.

”Thank...Thank you!”

He withstood his pain and mustered out his strength to express his gratitude.

It was Schmidt that placed the [Sanctuary Star] in his hand, naturally expressing gratitude to someone who saved his life was necessary.

”Do we still need such courteous words? Though, this thing is really strange, I tried to pick it off with a dagger, firing at it at point blank and even blasted it with a grenade! Nothing worked, but when I punched it out of anger, it fell off just like that!”

Schmidt waved his hand seemingly unconcerned.

Kieran’s sharp sense saw Schmidt’s hand was smeared with blood and taken quite a hit. Obviously, Schmidt’s light punch that he described was not that light after all.

”How do you feel now? You looked terrifying just now, being surrounding by dark red energy streams, I can’t even approach you but this diamond flew towards you instead!” Schmidt noticed Kieran eyeing over his hand and switched the topic immediately.

”It flew towards me?” Kieran was shocked again.

He knew the Extra Special Evolution contained secrets he didn’t know but the diamond flew to him on its own…

Kieran looked down to the [Sanctuary Star] again, he knew it in his gut there must be secrets hidden within.

Though, the pathway obviously wasn’t a great place to think. He suppressed his thoughts and expressed his intentions to Schmidt.

Both of them quickly got up and ran towards the exit.

Before they got near to the exit, explosions, and smell of gunpowder flew in through the breach and entered Kieran and Schmidt’s nose.

When both of them were finally out of the pathway and on to the platform outside, Schmidt gasped.

The place they were at was in the middle of the only mountain back on the island.

They could easily see what was going on at the sea.

There was a fleet of ten battleships, firing hundreds of cannons at the island.

It was very clear even under the dark night sky.

Especially when the fired iron pellet landed on a translucent barrier protecting the island and destroyed it, it shed even more brightness over the island.

”What the hell is this?” Schmidt was almost at a loss for words.

Kieran though was looking weird.

[Triggered special event!]

[Player will be placed in an extra faction!]

[You do not belong to the general, or Smulder’s faction. The actions you take against the general, Smulder’s faction will be the standard of your dungeon rating in the end!]

[Note: Actions include but doesn’t limited to destroying, the bigger your actions affect, the higher your rating will be!]

[Do you want to join the extra faction? Yes/No.]

...

Kieran took in a deep breath when he saw the special event notification, he made his choice without a second thought.

Then, he looked at Schmidt, saying, ”Schmidt, go back to the hall back there and wait for me!”

”What about you?” Schmidt nodded and asked.

”I’ll lay waste to everything! I’ve been waiting for this so for so long!” Kieran said slowly.

Because of the previous limitations on him, he was holding back, but now that the opportunity presented itself, how could he hold back anymore?

Kieran never thought himself as a broad-minded, kind-hearted person, therefore although he admitted that the saying ”Revenge is the dish best served cold”, he preferred to take his revenge all day long, from the moment the dish was made to the moment the dish was eaten!

If it was an overnight dish, interest will be added!

Now, it was time for him to collect his interest!