The Devil’s Cage

Before the new Death Knell’s hand reached Kieran, Kieran landed a kick on his face.

Kieran didn’t hold back with his kick though. The moment the new Death Knell appeared, the presence already told Kieran how powerful this new being was and had he held back before an enemy of such caliber, it would be suicidal.

Bang!

Death Knell’s face was twitching and twisting under Kieran’s boots.

Then… his head exploded.

The headless body staggered for a few steps shook a little but didn’t fall. The splattered blood, flesh, brain matter, and bones gathered once more.

What was more shocking was his voice that was heard once more.

“Not bad! Not bad! You will take up an important place on my display shelf!”

He didn’t seem to need a mouth or voicebox to speak yet the voice held obvious delight.

However, the delight would only cause one to shiver, as if a venomous snake was hanging around one’s neck, crawling all over their back.

Kieran frowned. He felt uncomfortable but the discomfort didn’t stop him from executing his next attack.

Fuu!

Devil Flame burned bright on his left hand and the fireball engulfed the body in an instant.

The remaining body was swiftly burned to ashes under the Devil Flame but…

When the Devil Flame was extinguished, the ashes engorged again and transformed itself back to flesh and blood.

The regeneration happened again but this time, it didn’t form Death Knell’s face anymore but a vortex, a vortex made up of blood and flesh!

Crying, wailing, and agonizing screams were heard constantly from the vortex.

At first, the voices were faint but soon were loud and clear, as if countless tortured soul appeared before Kieran in an instant.

Some of them were crawling on the ground, some of them were hanging in mid-air, some were dismembered a few times over.

The tortured souls were in different postures yet all were staring at Kieran.

Their stares were grudgeful.

They were showing unwillingness and hostility, they were bathing in hatred.

“Why are you fine?”

“Why do we have to suffer these kinds of tortures?’

“Why?”

“Why?”

Questioning voices filled Kieran’s ears, each time a question was asked, a Spirit authentication would appear.

One after another, the Spirit authentications increased from C rank to S rank almost instantaneously.

The authentication difficulty was still climbing after that, it only slowed down when it reached the higher ranks.

Without further contemplation, Kieran activated [Knight’s Conviction II]

[Wolf’s Remnant Feast] was shining.

[Mark of Rival] gave out a chime.

Transcendent level [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] allowed [Knight’s Conviction II] to boost Kieran’s Spirit up to 3 levels temporarily.

[Wolf’s Remnant Feast, Wisdom of the White Wolf] granted Kieran +3 level of authentication advantages.

[Mark of Rival, Rival Deathmatch] buffed Kieran with an extra level in all attributes and one level in authentication advantages.

In that instant, Kieran’s Spirit attribute jumped 8 minor ranks in total, from Pre III G+ rank to P rank which far exceeded Strong III rank.

The Spirit authentication was stuck at Strong III rank and unable to climb higher.

Regardless of how those tortured souls expressed their unwillingness, hatred, and loathing, even materializing them, it was useless.

“Eh? As expected of a masterpiece! You should have this kind of power! Now you are worthy to be placed in my display shelf… Huh?!”

The voice sounded once again and was shocked before it became filled with even more delight.

However, it soon sounded anxious and doubtful because Kieran wielded his sword and performed a hard slash.

The bewitching purplish glare was shining on [Arrogant Word].

Kieran who was advancing courageously against an unknown enemy made [Arrogant Word]’s blade body chime.

It longed to fight a powerful foe!

It would never bow before despair!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Slice away death with its sharp edge!

Pave open life with its sharp edge!

All the tortured souls around the place started to growl loudly, they couldn’t allow someone with a different expression to stand before them.

They couldn’t face Kieran who was unyielding against all circumstances.

Destroy him!

The tortured souls growled angrily.

They were infuriated by the differences of expression but what could they do?

[Arrogant Word]’s sharpness sliced one body after another.

There was no delay, no jittering in the slashing! There was no mercy shown towards these tortured souls.

It was similar to the scene where the greatsword was forged.

Back then, the Mutants reigned high and humans were treated like ants, however…

“Enslave me?”

“DIE!”

“If I can’t kill you, I will drag you down to hell with me!”

“I will never bow!”

That was the greatsword’s will.

“FURY SLASH!”

The slash that was infused with all Kieran’s strength made [Arrogant Word]’s bewitching purple shine with a never before seen brightness, it was like a small sun rising up from the ground and that getting more dazzling by the moment!

[Critical Damage] was triggered!

On top of that, from the buffs of the three special beverages, [Old Pappy the First], [Old Pappy the Second] and [Old Pappy the Third], a never before seen explosive power was infused in that slash.

[Fury Slash] boosted the sharp edge with Extreme attack into rank II, [Critical Damage] boosted it to rank III and with the similar effect from [Old Pappy Raging Roar], it was boosted to rank IV.

In addition, [Old Pappy Shouting] and [Old Pappy Growling] added a hefty 50% and 25% attack boost respectively on the already boosted rank IV attack.

The attack boost wasn’t enough to boost it to rank V attack though, but there was still [Critical Rate]!

When striking the enemy’s weak spot, there was a certain percentage to deal twice the damage.

The effect was triggered when [Arrogant Word] slashed down on the bloody vortex.

This single strike of [Fury Slash] from Kieran was boosted from rank II to rank V directly in an unimaginable way.

Correct, unimaginable!

This single strike had far exceeded the limits of this dungeon world.

The power infused in the greatsword was enough to tear open the fabric of space, or rather, it was already torn!

In front of the bewitching purple glare was an area of abysmal darkness. The darkness wrapped the blade, making it sharper and unrivaled; it also caught the tortured souls in the bloody vortex off guard.

BAAM!

When the dark blade edge struck the bloody vortex, the being hidden in the vortex gave out an excruciating frenzied roar.

The being was hurt!

The separated will in the vortex was reduced to nothing!

Blash!

The bloody vortex exploded and tainted the area red.

A gloomy yet extremely sturdy gold appeared in the middle of the explosion.

Kieran who should have exhausted all his stamina grabbed the dash of gold with an explosive speed that would render one speechless.

The gold was actually a broken piece.

It wasn’t big by any means, nor was it small and when Kieran grabbed the broken piece, [Hell Breath] floated out from Kieran’s back.

The broken piece then merged with [Hell Breath], completing the warrior’s broken face.

The shocking thing was…

The warrior had Kieran’s face!

At the bottom of the sculpture, two lines of words appeared after the merging.

When Kieran saw the phrases that appeared, his eyes twitched.