The Devil’s Cage

The darkness was like a black curtain blocking the sight of a common man.

Kieran however was no common man, with his A+ level Intuition, such total darkness was slightly blurry to his sight.

Plus the dense negative energy buff towards [Body of Evil], not only was his vision not blurred but on the contrary, it was enhanced.

At least when Kieran was standing on top of a tall building, he could clearly see all around and beneath him.

Though Ohara was a different case, a faint Sanctuary Force was circulating in her body, resisting the dense negative energy from invading her body, thus keeping her alive.

In fact, the normal Sanctuary Force was completely suppressed by the negative energy when they arrived at the Ciaran City central. If it wasn’t for her unique Soul Bless Force, she would have fallen to the ground, feeling weak.

Despite all that she was going through, Ohara didn’t display any dissatisfaction. Her eyes were looking at Kieran standing at a further spot, carrying a sense of worry in her gaze.

It was because the bold plans that he had in mind would surely come with great risk.

Ohara wanted to dissuade Kieran but he was exactly the same as she remembered, strong and unyielding, never accepting any dissuasion once his mind was set.

Kieran even wanted to send Ohara off, but how would it be possible?

The last time she left him, she almost lost him completely and this time around, she would die rather than leave his side. Ohara wouldn’t make the same mistake twice in her life but some reminders had to go to Kieran.

”2567, I don’t think Barry would tell the truth. Even though everything here is caused by the Old Southerns, surely they must have been collaborating since the beginning. Things may have grown out of Barry’s hand and resulted into the current situation because of his missteps!”

Ohara expressed her opinion based on her understanding of Barry.

”But what does it matter? From the start to end, regardless of who our enemies was, Barry or the Old Southerns, I’d never believe what an enemy has to say but to take them out in a single sweep.” Kieran said honestly.

Although he had gotten some clues out of the squad of alchemy enhanced warriors, he wouldn’t believe the clues left behind by a single enemy. Even though the clues looked extremely real, Kieran knew the most dangerous kind were the clues that seemed almost too real. It would lead one to think they were on the right path and unconsciously tricked before realizing that it was all a trap. Most of the time it would be too late when the realization kicked in.

Therefore Kieran decided to go with the more reliable way, even though it would cost him quite a lot.

...

Kieran slowly approached his target while hiding in the shadows.

His target was the central bank of Ciaran City. It was a temple of sorts back in the ancient days but was turned into a bank after.

Even though the building had been through countless battles and decades, most of its enormous building groups were gone, however the one before Kieran was kept decently, it maintained a portion of the majestic glory of the temple from the ancient times, showing its grand styling to the current generations.

A great amount of tall stone pillars acted as the entrance, supporting the roof which was at least 50 meters in height. A flight of granite stairs leading upstairs to the gate that was supposed to be a real door of the temple but instead was replaced by a smaller replica version of it. The door was formed of two free door panels, allowing at least four people to cross at a time.

The door would be a decent addition to any location but when it was placed within such a majestic structure, it was incomparable like a firefly’s light compared to purified moon beams.

Especially along the granite stairs, many paintings from the mythological ages were placed on both side of the stone wall, withered but still lively, it made the small replica door seem even smaller in terms of presence.

Though behind the inconspicuous small door, there was a squad of alchemy enhanced warrior with at least 30 men guarding it.

However, soon enough, those 30 warriors fell to the floor without any sound. On their dead cold face were smiles, the smile that came with satisfaction and delight after acquiring the things they longed for their whole life.

Following the smile was death! The grim reaper came close and reaped the life force out of them. Kieran was the grim reaper, moving forward to his destination.

A quick flash of movement pushed opened the small replica door, revealing a long passageway behind it.

It was absent of any light and the darkness was like a giant mouth, ready to swallow anyone who dared venture forth into the passageway.

Kieran didn’t mind the darkness at all and moved forward on the only path before him.

As he moved forth through the dark passageway, he heard a series of agonizing cries, which made him hasten his steps.

After around twenty seconds, a huge cage appeared before Kieran.

Kieran quickly examined the iron forged cage before him. The bars were as thick as a human’s arm and mystical runes were carved on it. The dense negative energy along with the mystical runes were emitting an odd decaying force.

Inside the cage were the Sanctuary members, being caged up like birds. It seemed like they’d been through some intense torture based on the bloody scars on their body.

Though more importantly, their mental state seemed to have suffered a heavy damage, each of them were in an absent-minded state, only a minority of them could remain sane.

When they saw Kieran appeared before them, the sane ones weren’t showered with delight or anything, each of them trying to say something in panic but when they opened their mouth, half of their tongues were cut off.

Aside from that, when the sane Sanctuary members tried to signal at Kieran with movements, the iron bar carved with mystical runes fired out lines of dark arrow at them.

Sou Sou Sou!!

The little arrows were like mist, plunging into their body, causing them to roll on the floor in pain and robbing their only abilities to tell Kieran what was going on.

Truth be told, even if they could tell Kieran, it was already too late because the moment he stepped into the building, he had already fallen into the enemy’s’ trap.

”Tributes! No matter how beautiful the demonic power is, only such a tribute fits my requirement!”

”I’ve been waiting for you, 2567!”

The voice sounded one after another, the former sounded a little fanatic, but the latter was cold in tone, yet both voices were from a single person.

With a red linen outfit plus his signature bald head, Braid slowly walked over.

He looked satisfyingly at Kieran and Kieran to him, with the least satisfaction.

Then, Kieran moved his palm behind his back carefully without leaving a trace but Braid instantly noticed the small movements.

He laughed and sneered at Kieran. His huge scar made his sneering laugh looked even more vicious.

”Petty tricks! Nikorei didn’t give you anything else? Perhaps you didn’t know using illusory tricks against a Southerner from the Loran factions will only make a fool of yourself?”

Braid flashed over before Kieran and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up in the air single-handedly.

Promptly, a black gel-like liquid sprouted out from Braid’s right hand and locked Kieran’s head and limbs down.

Braid glanced over Kieran who was struggling without success, he then said loudly with his fanatic and cold tone together, ”Don’t struggle! We will begin shortly! I really wanted to see the looks on the God of Earth’s face when she knew her efforts fell short!”

A sickening laugh followed and Braid lifted Kieran in mid-air, heading outside to the central of Ciaran City.

The magic circle has been completed back in the central, not only the minor parts but as a whole magic circle. A magic circle that used Ciaran City as its base, or in other words, a sacrificial platform!

A tall stone platform was standing in the middle of the magic circle, dense negative energy was rumbling around the area like dark clouds. On top of the platform was a golden short knife, patiently waiting for its tribute to arrive.

Braid lifted Kieran’s neck and walked up to the platform slowly. He took up the golden knife and drove it into Kieran’s heart without any mercy or hesitation.

Braid turned his wrist hard, trying to mince Kieran’s heart into pieces, letting his hot blood spill.

But, despite his efforts, Kieran’s chest didn’t even spill out a single drop of blood and the ”Kieran” that Braid was lifted up looked at him with a faint smile on his face, spelling a word out of his mouth.

Idiot.