The Devil’s Cage

While bathing in the white light, the notifications in Kieran’s vision were spamming him like a geyser, gushing up non-stop.

[Energy resonance, Musou Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art acquired a certain amount of experience, level cost decreased by 0.1 Golden Skill Points]

[Energy resonance, Musou Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art acquired a certain amount of experience, level cost decreased by 0.2 Golden Skill Points]

[Energy resonance, Musou Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art acquired a certain amount of experience, level cost decreased by 0.3 Golden Skill Points]

…

When more [Seal of Dawn]s were drawn, Kieran was showered with more gains than ever during the resonance process.

Especially when Kieran drew a total of 10 seals in one go without even thinking, the required Golden Skill Points to Transcendence in the notifications had pumped up to 0.5 and 0.6 each line.

Kieran was not too skilled in drawing, except for the [Seal of Dawn].

His hundreds of thousands of times practicing drawing the symbol had branded the picture into his soul. He could even draw it out with his eyes closed and when there was a bigger gain waiting for him, Kieran would definitely go over his usual level.

Each seal was drawn with a single motion, there was no pause or delay in the process as if a master of art was exploding his talents on a piece of canvas.

One after another, the [Seal of Dawn] filled the ground in front of the small chapel and until the ground in the area was filled with the drawing without any more space to spare, Kieran finally stopped.

He looked up to the small chapel. The chapel now was filled with a wild tenderness.

“Come forth, my child!”

The voice with endless kindness echoed in Kieran’s ears.

Under the white radiance and Dawn Force resonance, that phrase sounded utterly sincere, Kieran could even feel his soul throbbing a little.

A natural warm feeling made Kieran step forward uncontrollably, going into the small chapel.

Fortunately, Kieran was prepared for this. The moment his foot moved, he clenched his teeth to force himself back on the spot.

There is no free lunch in the world!

Kieran understood the saying a long time ago.

Ancilanco was the God who commanded the plague back then, he would not simply help the God’s Child of the Goddess of Dawn to raise his strength without a reason, even though he stole part of the Goddess’s abilities.

What was Ancilanco after then?

The answer was obvious, a body!

Ancilanco had his eyes on Kieran’s body. Or more precisely, a vessel!

A brand new vessel that could house his will, his conscience.

According to legends, Gods came in all shapes and sizes because of the vessel they had chosen.

Kieran wasn’t sure about that but one thing was for sure: A God is trying to come back to life in a God’s Child’s body.

Inside the current dungeon world, Kieran never came across similar intel before but in [The Shaman’s Partner], he saw related records more than once in the God of Earth’s book collection.

Although both dungeon worlds had differences, some parts shared similarities.

More importantly, wherever he was, Kieran didn’t want to become a vessel for some divine existence.

Kieran is Kieran, no one could change that, not even… GOD!

So, Kieran stood his ground, clenching his teeth hard and saw the small chapel shining brightly, his face had a look of confusion and as if deep in thought.

He didn’t want to become a vessel for Ancilanco but it didn’t mean he didn’t want the benefits from him!

While facing against a cannonball coated with sugar, he would eat the sugar coating but the cannonball? He would return it back to its owner.

“My child, you don’t need to feel lost. Return to my kingdom and you will be granted eternal life.”

The warm and tender voice kept echoing in his ears.

Those words should be some shallow bewitching words but amidst the energy resonance, it sounded like a golden melody that shook Kieran’s soul.

Spirit authentications then followed one after another and piled up even faster than the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]’s notification, spamming his vision non-stop.

It seemed like Ancilanco was anxious but Kieran felt like he didn’t hear any of those, he stood still.

“My child, I will clear up all your confusion.”

Ancilanco started to change his strategy when Kieran put up a sturdy monolith in his mind.

Perplexed, Kieran stared at the small chapel in a blank gaze, his eyes were out of focus and his mouth was like uttering sleep talks.

“What is the advanced skill of the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art]?”

“What is the [Dark Movement Technique]?”

“What is the inherited sword skill that was lost?”

“What is the throwing technique?

“What is the strangling technique, the mindsight?

Question after question, the warm presence of conscience suffered a delay in reaction.

If Ancilanco had a real face and body, he would feel disgusted, as if e had just eaten a fly. He never thought that a mortal that could resonate with his power would be this difficult to deal with, even though he did steal the powers from the prayers of the believers of Dawn.

However, things had extended to this stage, after spending around 70% of the Dawn Force that he gathered throughout the years. Ancilanco would not allow himself to walk away fruitless.

More so, the body in front him was magnificent.

His Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intuition, each one of them was perfect, just that his Spirit was too hard to break, but speaking from another aspect, didn’t it prove how great this body was?

“With this body, even in this era where beliefs have almost completely disappeared… I can still rise again!”

Such thoughts rose from the bottom of Ancilanco’s heart, he didn’t hesitate anymore after that.

WUNG!

The light radiated strongly.

The brilliance formed human figures that seemed like it came to life before Kieran’s eyes.

Each of them had their own unique rhythm and power, however, the rhythm and powers had disgusting, daunting, and dreaded energy with them even though they were formed under Dawn Force’s brilliance.

It was true that Ancilanco had stolen the Goddess of Dawn’s Power of Faith, he could now use Dawn Force at his will but Ancilanco didn’t know the legacy of the Church of Dawn.

So, at this particular moment, what Ancilanco showed Kieran wasn’t the lost legacy of Church of Dawn, neither was it the advanced skill of the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art], but the plague!

To Ancilanco who had commanded the plague in the past, it was the only thing that he could create to fool Kieran and if it was just for show, Ancilanco believed it would work.

Besides that, to spice up the authenticity, what Ancilanco showed Kieran wasn’t the common plague but the core of the plague itself!

If Ancilanco knew how Kieran had gotten his title of God’s Child, he would not have done that but unfortunately, the devoted elderly sister only prayed in the small chapel, she didn’t utter anything of importance before.

Guntherson?

After the Church of Dawn had fallen, if it was not necessary, he wouldn’t have entered St. Paolo Church and would only spend most of his time in his own wooden hut.

So, Ancilanco knew Kieran was a God’s Child but he had no idea how Kieran was acknowledged and the origin of his title, neither did he know how drastic the differences were between Kieran and the God’s Child of his knowledge.

Likewise, Kieran didn’t know all of that either. When he asked Ancilanco the questions, he was acting on instinct, trying his best to see how many more benefits he could get.

He didn’t hold any hope with him at first since he planned to stall but who knew…

[Ancilanco displayed Knights of Plague Body Tempering Art to you, detected it is not your Origin Force, consumption +100%, spend 2 Golden Skill Points to learn?]

[Detected insufficient Golden Skill Points…]

[Converting to auto-learning mode!]

…

The notifications that popped up made Kieran widened his eyes big as a gold ball.

He swore he will imprint all the shapes of the human figures in front of him in his mind.