The Devil’s Cage

Nicil was dumbstruck by the scene before his eyes.

Under the pearl white shower of Sanctuary Force, there was something else that was powerful. It was white and shined brightly amidst the powerful force.

The unusual white was as sharp as a blade and as keen as a sword.

The white, metallic shine spread out from Kieran’s heart, forming a circle that went over his head and feet. It circulated around him with a random but organized order.

Even though the whole place was showered with Sanctuary Force, it still couldn’t overpower the sharp shine from Kieran. This was even more so when the sharp shine appeared from Kieran as the Sanctuary Force around seemed a little gloomy.

”Halo of Thorns!” Nicil cried in shock.

As the deacon of the Sanctuary, Nicil was quite familiar with the skill before his eyes.

However, it was because of this familiarity that made him feel unbelievable because within the Sanctuary itself, everyone knew that Halo of Thorns was the legacy skill of the late Holy Knight, Hugh’s specialty. It was not possible to imitate or learn this skill.

Inside Sanctuary itself, every knowledge and item that was marked with the term legacy all originated from a single place: the Hall of Legacy.

Only the previous generations of Holy Knight, Archdeacons had the qualifications to enter the Hall of Legacy.

Even though Kieran had the titles as the assistant of the God of Earth, the Bird of Death, Fiery Devil and other sorts, it didn’t mean that he had the right to enter the hall.

From certain points of view, if Kieran entered the hall, he would die without a question because the Hall of Legacy was the source of the Sanctuary Force.

However, it became more and more difficult to explain the Halo of Thorns before Nicil’s eyes, which confused him.

A moment later, he suddenly thought of something.

”Could it be…is it some skill that Rei developed?”

Nicil thought that it was very possible after the thought hit him.

Maybe for others, to develop such a skill was harder to fly to the sky but with the God of Earth’s capabilities, as long as she wanted to do something, she was able to achieve it with ease!

Nicil strongly believed this since he had witnessed Nikorei’s miraculous feat more than once.

At the same time, Ohara was also sharing the same thought.

The traitorous Archdeacon was dumbstruck for a moment before she roared even louder, fiercer, ”You liar! That bitch! Nikorei you damn bitch! How dare you use such tricks again! Let me tell you something. IT’S USELESS!”

Following her frenzied roar, Sanctuary Force shone brighter from her and in reply, Kieran’s Halo of Thorns changed accordingly.

A second and third halo appeared!

Following the appearance of the first halo circulating Kieran, the Sanctuary Force from Ohara regained part of its brightness. But as more halos appeared, it turned gloomy once more.

The halos with the metallic-like, sharp brightness spun even faster around Kieran and stopped all of a sudden.

CHANG CHANG CHANG!

Three repeated clunking sounds similar to a sharp blade being drawn made the already bright Halo of Thorns even brighter, overpowering Sanctuary Force in the process.

Nicil covered his eyes after he cried in pain because of the extreme brightness.

Ohara was sent staggering backwards and eventually crashed into the wall behind, sinking to the ground.

Following Ohara’s fall, Sanctuary Force dispersed quickly.

Kieran’s figure slowly emerged from the extreme brightness.

Nicil held back the pain in his eyes, forcing himself to size up Kieran with his eyelids open.

When he saw that Kieran was rapidly recovering from the burns caused by Sanctuary Force, he couldn’t help but gasp repeatedly.

”It is the same!?” Nicil exclaimed in his heart.

Ohara’s rage was foreseeable after she was sent flying back. Her persistence kept leading her to think that it was some trick that Nikorei performed to play her.

She freed herself from the wall and dashed out with a punch filled with Sanctuary Force.

”A fake is a fake! You will never be the same as the original!”

Her rage was like a scorching fire, causing her to launch her fist absent of any technique. However, when strength and speed has reached a certain level, any technique was an abundance, such as Ohara’s punch.

On top of that, Ohara’s punch was very sturdy! It was to the point that her punch could evenly match the Legendary level weapon [Arrogant Word].

Her punch was bound to shatter earth and batter heavens. However, Kieran stood there as if he didn’t see such a punch coming at him.

He stood straight up, puffed up his chest and allowed Ohara to land her punch on him.

KABAAAM!

Strong wind broke out upon contact. [Armor of Excellence] trembled slightly and caused Kieran’s body to wobble for a moment.

Wuuuush!

Three ring of Halo of Thorns appeared all at once, blasting Ohara backwards upon contact and sending her flying back into the wall again.

BAM!

As she crashed into the wall, she roared like a fierce beast.

”I don’t believe it!”

She got herself up and charged her punch at Kieran again.

The outcome was the same. Nothing was going to change as long as Halo of Thorns was active.

Kieran didn’t take any damage with the healing of [Saint Thorns] but Ohara was getting damaged more and more by the skill.

”This...This…”

Nicil who was standing outside was at a loss of words. He couldn’t describe his current emotions.

Before his eyes, Kieran had already exceeded his wildest imagination. He was standing there allowing Ohara to strike him as much as she liked and he didn’t even flinch as if he planted himself to the ground like a mountain or a monolith in the middle of a rapid stream.

A one-of-a-kind aura started to form above Kieran vaguely.

Kieran wasn’t aware of the aura forming. He was in awe of the effects of [Saint Thorns].

Even though he was receiving damage of Average, Strong and Powerful levels, he recovered by Light, Moderate and Heavily wound worths of healing with the the reflection damage of 5%, 10% and 25% respectively. He felt like he was in an undefeatable form, standing tall in front of a thousand and thousand of soldiers.

Still, he didn’t get carried away by its effect. He was aware of the weakness of [Saint Thorns]. Powerful damage was its maximum threshold, he wouldn’t be able to withstand damage further than that.

Once he received damage that was more than how much his healing could catch up to, even if he could reflect a part of the damage, he would fall before his enemies aside from exceptions where an unexpected turn of events happen.

Still, it was enough to deal with the situation before him.

Kieran smiled when he saw Ohara panting heavily in a damaged state.

It was his first step, the first step of removing the traitor within the Sanctuary before Smulder could. Everyone else including Smulder would never see it coming and the influence of his actions was no doubt going to be substantial.

It was what Kieran wanted since he triggered the [Special Event]!

Kieran took in deep breaths and coldly glanced at Ohara who was still charging at him regardless of the consequences.

Being passive and withstanding hits was not his style. Kieran stood still for a quite a while because he wanted to test out [Saint Thorns] effect. After he got the results, it was time for him to take matters into his own hands.

[Arrogant Word]’s dark red shine glimmered ceaselessly, similar to a haunting eye staring at its opponent.

When the greatsword was wield up, such a stare was filled with killer intents.

Kieran did not believe Ohara’s neck was as hard as her punch. A moment later, things started to change.

Hundreds of thousands of vipers rumbled around as the vile stench assaulted one’s nose.

Amidst the nest of vipers, a dark red shine flashed over.