The Devil’s Cage

The sword that missed its target plunged into the ground beside Kieran’s feet, the sword tip and almost half of the blade went into the ground.

The knight who missed his slash gave another explosive shout, “HYAK!”

He turned this waist a little and tried to ram into Kieran with the pauldron on his shoulder.

Wuush!

Before the shoulder hit even landed, a violent wind assaulted Kieran’s face and made his hood flutter.

At the same time, a horn call sounded in Kieran’s ears as well.

Wuu, Wuuu Wuuu!

The primitive and bleak horn sound changed the look of the street before Kieran. He felt like he saw a plethora of shining armoured knights with bright coloured flags behind them, raising their lances and was charging towards him from the horizon.

Their warhorses were rampaging forward, causing the earth to shake as they galloped.

The myriad of lances formed a “lance forest”, glaring in a daunting brightness, especially when all of the lances were aimed towards a single person, they looked like a cyclone with destructive power, wanting to drown Kieran completely.

Then, Kieran raised his leg and dished out his kicks.

Bang!

Right away, the cyclone before his eyes were “stomped” to bits and not only the cyclone, the plethora of knights that were charging at him together with the illusory realm were shattered together as well.

Kieran’s foot landed on the knight’s pauldron.

The knight who tried to ram into Kieran suffered a stop from his attack and after being stopped for less than a second, the knight was sent flying like he was hit by an accelerating truck—he flew uncontrollably like a loose kite and crashed into a house beside the street.

Kaboom!

The house made up of bricks crumbled down like paper and that wasn’t the only house!

A total of three houses were knocked down by the knight in a single blow and even after that, the momentum on the knight’s body didn’t diminish at all, he continued to fly for another dozen meters and bounced off the ground a couple of times before stopping completly.

Crack!

After a clear cracking clunk, a network of cracks similar to a spider web spread from his pauldron. The cracks spread throughout his body armour, interwrinted and overlapped before it ultimately failed to sustain the pressure and broke.

Pak!

It sounded like a glass fell on the ground and upon the breaking noise, the golden armour shattered to bits, covering the injured knight underneath.

After a while, the heavily wounded knight wobbled hard as he struggled to get on his feet. He looked at Kieran with utmost astonishment but Kieran as calm as ever.

The knight’s attack was decent, it could affect one’s mental state while inflicting physical damage.

If it was someone else who had to endure the attack, it would be effective with a single blow, but Kieran? It was still not enough.

Whether was it Spirit related or other physical attacking means, all of them were lackluster.

The knight didn’t stand a chance before Kieran and Kieran didn’t mind leaving an impression that he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Kieran knew this as nothing but a test but for someone who attacked him, he wouldn’t show them any generosity.

Even more so, the knight’s attack didn’t seem to be holding back either despite it just being a test.

If it was others, the first slash from the knight’s sword would split the target in half without a doubt and the second ram would crush every bone and tendon of the target.

If Kieran didn’t want to get more information he would have killed the knight with one strike.

The heavily wounded knight saw Kieran’s calm gaze, he felt like he understood something and immediately saluted at Kieran.

“Your highness, please forgive my recklessness! It is really to surprising to have a God’s Child appearing in the current era. We must, by all means necessary, confirm your identity as a God’s Child and not just an empty swindler that cheats respect,” the knight said.

“So did you get the result you are looking for?” Kieran asked slowly.

“Yes, You are indeed a true God’s Child. Please forgive my rudeness!”

The wounded knight saluted again but this time it was different than his knight salutation.

He kneeled down with one knee, placed his right clenched knuckle on his chest to knock himself hard before lowering his head down.

Kieran clearly saw when the knight knocked himself on the chest, his face was twitching.

He knew how powerful his previous kick was, even though he tried his best at holding back, controlling his strength, the bones on the knight broke in more than just one or two places and the muscles all over his body must have been torn.

Still, Kieran didn’t show any compassion for the man.

“State your purpose,” Kieran said coldly.

“Your Highness, I come forth with the bishop’s goodwill!” The bishop hoped that we can work together again, bringing the world back under God’s brilliance!” The knight replied.

“Work together?” Kieran raised a brow and his heart instantly knew what the knight was referring.

After the conversation with the “captive” before, it wasn’t hard for Kieran to understand the situation.

The knight or the organization behind him came for the treasure for Dawn and in fact, it really was.

“The bishop hopes the Church of Dawn will aid Church of Light to initiate the Holy War. We failed once 50 years ago but we didn’t give up. We have been preparing in the dark ever since then. Those corrupted nobles could never understand how important the existence of a God is in this world. The God of Light and the Goddess of Dawn will have their light fill the world as the Holy War arrives.”

The knight’s tone was exceptionally sincere and looked at Kieran with frantic gaze.

Kieran replied the knight with his own calm gaze. His eyes and expression didn’t even budge because he was waiting for the knight’s leverage in all this. He believed the knight was not that stupid to try to capture the wolf with bare hands.

Both of them stared at each other for a few seconds before the knight realized what was going on.

“The Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art from Church of Dawn has lost the possibility of advancing higher because of the missing Daybreak Dawn Art. Lord bishop is willing to present you the Light of Holy Index and Holy Spirit Transfuse Spell copies to aid you in advancing Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art,” the knight said after a deep breath.

Kieran’s calm eyes finally shook.

“So that’s really the case!” Kieran uttered in his heart.

The guesses about losing or missing the advanced skill of the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] bloomed in Kieran’s heart when he went through Guntherson’s notes but after it was verified, he still couldn’t hide his disappointment.

Though soon enough, Kieran placed his attention on the [Daybreak Dawn Art].

Judging from what the knight said, it wasn’t hard to induce [Daybreak Dawn Art] was the key to the advanced [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art], likewise, the [Light of Holy Index] and [Holy Spirit Transfuse Spell] that he mentioned should have similar effects as well.

However, whether it was the [Daybreak Dawn Art] or the [Light of Holy Index] and [Holy Spirit Transfuse Spell], Kieran knew nothing about them and couldn’t form a precise judgement at the moment.

“I need time to think this over.”

Kieran then turned around, going back where he came from after he finished.

The knight looked at Kieran’s back, wanting to say something with his mouth open but it triggered his wounds instantly. The pain forced the knight to break out of his posture, landing him on the ground.

More knights then appeared and when they saw their fallen captain, especially the wounds on the captain’s body, all of the others gasped hard.

“Help me up!” The captain knight said.

When a knight was held up by another, an immediate healing effect would occur and when with the help of a dozen knights, the captain’s wound got better swiftly but his brows furrowed hard.

After a while, the captain said, “Send a reinforcement letter to the bishop!”