The Devil’s Cage

Without a sign, a red beam shrouded Smulder as he arrived before the monster.

It seemed like Smulder had stepped into a trap specifically made for him.

”What the… it triggered because of the Sanctuary Force?”

Kieran who was still beating the mutated cyclops giant noticed the unusual event immediately.

In fact, when Smulder zapped himself over, Kieran was already prepared. After all, there was a rivalry between him and Smulder. It was just that Kieran never thought that the scene would unfold like that.

”This was the monster modified and created specifically to target Smulder?” Kieran thought in his heart.

Kieran even painted the scene in his mind that Smulder would be caught off guard by the trap and the mutated cyclops giant gave him a direct hit.

Maybe the monster wasn’t as nimble as Kieran but he couldn’t deny that the mutated cyclops giant was very strong in terms of power.

Even with his [Transform Devil II] form, he barely had any advantages over the monster.

If his devil form didn’t enhance his stats as a whole, he might have even faced disadvantages against it.

However, it was now like water flowing in the river, it was simple and easy.

Bang!

After dodging the palm of the monster and neglecting the strong wind that came with it, Kieran launched a kick at its elbow. The blazing kick splashed out fire in all directions at the precise point of the kick.

Kieran extended his wing in mid-air to launch another swift kick at its elbow.

Following countless kick shadows appearing, more blazing fire gushed out from the motion, engulfing the mutated cyclops giant’s entire elbow.

It even started to release a burnt smell in the air.

The newly upgraded skill, [High Devil Body II] was in effect. The fire from his kicks was triggered by the devil bloodline within him.

After [Transform Devil] had leveled up, the devil’s capabilities had become much stronger and his other changes were not to be neglected anymore either.

By activating [Transform Devil II], his powers of the devil completely multiplied.

[All attributes +4]

[Acquired Devil Lord Constitution II: Acquired High Devil Armor II: defense automatically set above Powerful and 20% damage reduction against Holy energy damage; Acquired High Devil Body II: +2 Strength; Every attack is added with Powerful rank burn damage and has a certain percent chance to trigger fire splash damage within a 3 meter range; fire splash damage is ranked at Strong. When receiving damage, attacker will suffer Extreme rank burn damage; Secondary Elemental Damage Resist +2, HP +1500, Stamina +1500]

[Acquired Flame Blast II: By flapping your flame wings, form a 130°, 40 meter blast range before you. Extreme rank flames, Powerful rank blast wave, 3 times per transformation]

[Acquired Beheader Flaming Sword: Summon great sword of flames, Powerful rank fire damage and attack, 2 minute duration, 1 time per transformation]

[Acquired Blaspheme Whisper II: Any target you kill will resurrect temporarily and fight for you, 2 minute duration, 1 time per transformation]

[Acquired Sulphuric Scorch II: Any targets burnt by your attack will undergo a -2 Constitution authentication to yours, if they fail, the target will suffer extra 300 poison damage, 6-second duration]

[Acquired Light of Fear II: Any living target that sees you will have to undergo a Spirit authentication of at least B+ rank, if they fail, induce Fear debuff]

[Devil Libra: The density of the bloodline awakens a part of the gifts of the devil overlord inside you. You can choose any stats at will, adding onto other stats with a 2:1 ratio. Added stats should not be lower than D rank and the added stats will not exceed the limit of Spirit level +3. Duration 2 minutes, 1 per transformation.]

...

The precise changes were presented in numbers to Kieran.

A +4 to all stats and enhancement of all the other skills as well as the newly acquired [Devil Libra] boosted Kieran’s confidence to the max. Otherwise he wouldn’t have made the decision to strike first.

Aside from the others, the sole fact that Kieran’s HP was at 2400 in his devil form plus the effects of [Mardos Arm, Soul Devour II] granted him the capabilities to face any fight head on if he didn’t receive any destructive damage.

The only sad fact was that after activating [Transform Devil II] and [Desire Summon II], [Saint Thorns]’s effect temporarily disappeared. Otherwise, Kieran would have had even more confidence to take his power to the next level.

Still, it was enough to deal with the mutated cyclops giant before him. The mutated cyclops giant was undeniably strong but since it was created to specifically target Smulder, it provided Kieran with an unexpected opportunity.

After all, the mutated cyclops giant’s power was a direct counter to Sanctuary Force but Kieran however was wielding the power of the devil!

Whuuuu!

A breath from Kieran boiled the magma on his body to a new high, the wings behind him were burning even brighter.

A giant flaming beheader sword appeared with the same blazing fire in Kieran’s devil form hands.

The mutated cyclops giant seemed to sense the danger from the beheader. Kieran who deemed the monster as clumsy and stupid surprisingly didn’t extinguish his elbow on fire with the other hand. Instead, it went after him and tried to get a hold of him. At the same time, its scarlet red eyes were glimmering with red lights, attempting to block Kieran’s retreat with fire beams.

The combination attack seemed to be quite rare coming from a low level intellectual monster.

Kieran wasn’t sure whether it was a sudden flash of a lightbulb in the monster’s head or if it was trained to do such. The cyclops giant was surprisingly displaying movements that toppled his previous actions which were unorganized and messy.

Although it was useless against Kieran, it gave Kieran a boost of strength.

Kieran didn’t cover his path of retreat and when he dodged the big, slamming palm, the red beam was fired at him like a shadow trailing him. However, at that very moment, Kieran’s already quick speed skyrocketed once more!

[Devil Libra]! Converting Intuition into Agility!

Within a blink of an eye, his S rank Agility with the enhancements of the devil was added with another +5 buff, instantly boosting his Agility to SSS- rank!

SSS+ rank Spirit allowed Kieran to suppress most of his enemies with ease but Spirit was an abstract attribute after all. It couldn’t be described with words but Agility was different!

Its effect was very visible! Still, it was lower than SSS+ Spirit by two minor ranks but it allowed Kieran to dodge the red beam with ease.

Then, everything unfolded according to Kieran’s calculations. The red beam struck Smulder instead after missing Kieran.

Smulder who was halfway freeing himself from the first trap was fired back inside again, removing his figure from sight.

While Kieran launched the fatal attack at the mutated cyclops giant, his unparalleled speed allowed him to create fiery afterimages of himself on the surface of the sea under the night sky.

When the fiery afterimages increased in number and fused into one giant area of fire, it turned into a fiery tornado, engulfing the monster from top to bottom.

KABOOOOM!

A deafening explosion went off.

The fiery tornado across the sky had disappeared along with the giant mutated cyclops giant.

A dash of golden glow was visible on top of the pieces of the broken deck.

Kieran quickly grabbed it as he landed.

Following the death of the cyclops giant, Smulder finally freed himself from the red beam. Although the Holy Knight seemed to have gone through a rough time inside, the shining armor formed by the Sanctuary Force turned gloomy. His rugged face had small cuts all over and blood seeped out.

Smulder didn’t bother to wipe the blood off his face. He was looking at Kieran who was still floating in mid-air. His eyes were overflowing with rage.

The gloomy Sanctuary Force armor started to regain its shine and the meaning was self-explanatory.

It was time to duel!

Smulder wanted a one-on-one duel with Kieran!

While feeling the intentions of battle from Smulder, Kieran replied with a calm gaze.

If it was some other time, even with [Transform Devil II], [Desire Summon II], and [Saints Thorn], Kieran wouldn’t have had the confidence to triumph over Smulder.

Ohara and Smulder’s Sanctuary Force were two completely different concepts.

BUT!

At that very moment, Kieran had the utmost confidence to give Smulder the beating of a lifetime.