The Devil’s Cage

”Seal the breach! Hurry up!?”

”The breach is too big!”

”The lower deck has been flooded completely!”

”The second upper deck is sinking as well!”

...

Message after message came from the wireless radio, the captain of the battleship on the deck facial expression turned even uglier.

The first mate and the other crew around him had even worse expressions, panic filled their faces.

”Fret not, it is not the worst time yet! We still have our allies beside us, we still can…”

The captain wanted to motivate his crew but before he could finish, two huge explosions sounded off.

KABOOOM! KABOOOM!

Thick smoke rose up high under the sunset, the glorious sunset added a layer of red over the burning fire.

Then, the two other allied battleships that the captain placed his hopes on sunk into the sea of flames.

Crying and wailing sounded as the ships went down with their crews. The captain’s face turned pale instantly. He slightly opened his shivering mouth and after around three to four seconds of dazing off, he shakingly uttered, ”Aaa… Abandon ship!”

After the words escaped the captain’s mouth, he was drained of his energy, almost falling on the floor if his first mate didn’t catch him. He couldn’t understand why the advantageous situation turned against them in just a moment.

His mind then unconsciously painted that figure that charged at his ship by stepping on the sea.

”The Bird of Death?” The captain muttered.

It seemed like he would never forget the name for the rest of his life but for Kieran on the other hand, he would never remember some goons like the captain.

There wasn’t mystics involved in the ambush nor enemies that shared his power level, all he was facing was a bunch of commoner elites. Even though they were fully armed, to Kieran, they were nothing more than a disorderly crowd.

It was too easy to wipe them out, especially against such a battleship, all Kieran had to do was to find the ammunition room and a small grenade could deal with most of the problem.

In fact, things unfolded even easier than Kieran had expected.

While standing on top of the sinking, burning ship, he took a glance over the area and found nothing of interest. Kieran then took up a lifeboat, threw it out at The Coral’s direction with all his might, followed by a leap to the lifeboat.

The lifeboat’s motor was spinning fiercely while Kieran landed and stood at the front of the small boat. As his small lifeboat rode the waves and wind, explosions occurred again behind him.

The feathers of his mantle fluttered by the sudden wind, his hair was blown forward, covering his face a little.

Everyone on The Coral gazed at the figure that was approaching rapidly. Their eyes couldn’t help but stare at the crow’s feather on Kieran’s shoulder which had been dyed red in the sunset’s glory.

”Shhh! He didn’t even use up a minute to take out the enemies! This...This is the Bird of Death?!” Azinder on the deck gasped uncontrollably.

Azinder could count on The Coral, so he wasn’t really concerned over the three battleships but he would never have thought those three battleships could be taken down so easily.

Azinder unconsciously looked at his first mate and all he saw was his first mate who was also one of the knights-in-reserve was muttering like he lost his soul.

Azinder wanted to wake his first mate up from his trance with his hand but when he heard what his first mate was muttering, his hand froze in mid-air.

”Assistant o’ assistant, in the form of a raven, ominous befallen. Named Bird of Death, a body of chaos, a heart of light, he will reign the land with a kingsly might.”

”Assistant o’ assistant, in the form of a raven, ominous befallen. Named Bird of Death, a body of chaos, a heart of light, he will reign the land with a kingsly might.”

His first mate was muttering the prophecy that the God of Earth left behind. It was well-spread throughout the West Coast, of course, it had been in the Sanctuary’s ears but they never chose to believe it, or perhaps the Sanctuary had their own interpretation of the prophecy.

However, looking at the scene and thinking about Kieran’s Holy Knight reincarnation identity, even some of the members had their own interpretation of the matter, their heart also skipped a beat.

A body of chaos meant the devil bloodline, a heart of life meant the Holy Knight reincarnation.

What about the king in kingsly might?

Azinder’s heart was pumping fast, his mind was spinning fast at the matter. Not only him alone but the other crew members also thought the same way after they heard the first mate muttered the prophecy.

Only Ohara at a side frowned. She unconsciously wanted to refute Nikorei’s prophecy but once she thought the person in the prophecy was referring to Kieran, she couldn’t utter a word.

”Hugh…A king?... King… That doesn’t sound all that bad!”

Ohara smirked after muttering the word twice, it seemed like she felt the title was decent.

Her eyes were even full of affectionate and tenderly love when she saw Kieran jump back up on the deck.

Kieran caught the gaze immediately and quivered hard as he landed on the deck, the sudden gaze made him almost slipped and fell on the deck.

Kieran turned to Azinder right away, trying to avoid Ohara’s gaze completely but he noticed Azinder was looking at him with a different gaze than before. Not only Azinder but the other crew members as well.

Kieran frowned.

”What the hell happened?” He thought in his heart.

He didn’t think that the simple explosion from his fireball would scare the Sanctuary members to this extent. Since Hugh the Holy Knight lived with them before, Kieran didn’t think the Sanctuary members hadn’t seen explosion or battles.

Still, Kieran still felt repulsed against such gazes. He wasn’t a clown in the circus, standing around for others to admire him.

Fuuung!

The rampant, sulphuric chaotic aura blasted out on the deck, wrecking everything around as a violent wind, slapping the face of Azinder and his crew. The sudden blast of wind brought them back from their trance.

Azinder who came back to his senses saw Kieran walked towards the cabin. The sulphuric scent was still lingering around his nose, causing him to quiver out of instinct.

According to his knowledge, and what he witnessed, Kieran was not a person with mercy. The title ”Bird of Death” was the best proof, and his devil bloodline solidified the fact.

If Kieran wasn’t happy by any means…

Azinder shivered his body again, it was not the outcome he would like to see. Azinder had no intentions of sharing the same fate as those unfortunate souls on the enemy battleships.

Even at that moment, he never felt his identity as a member of the Sanctuary could provide him with any safety.

”Resume course! Now! Hurry up!”

Azinder shouted at his crew, bringing them back to work and trying to repel the fear inside him. His gaze was also landed at Ohara, showing his eyes full of begging but the disappointing thing was, the Archdeacon didn’t even care about his begging eyes. All she did was follow Kieran back to the cabin.

Though, Azinder quickly thought of something else and ran towards the kitchen.

Since no one could give him a hand, all he could do was to save his own ass.

He was glad that he has quite the observation, allowing him to know some of ”his” favorites.

Just as Azinder was breaking his simple and unadorned life by preparing a great feast for Kieran, Kieran, on the other hand, was frowning over Ohara before him with her affectionate smile.

If it was possible, Kieran would prefer to fight Smulder one more time than face a smile like this.

It was too troublesome.