The Devil’s Cage

The malicious intent was rapidly closing in.

Within a breath’s time, it flew across the whole underground city and reached the outer courtyard.

Kieran sensed that the figure slightly paused at the walls—

KABOOM!

A loud bang later, the malicious figure moved forward again.

Even without seeing, Kieran was aware of how the figure had entered the courtyard: by destroying the courtyard walls!

As for running into obstructions while traveling here?

The answer was obvious but the malicious figure didn’t care.

To be more precise, the figure crushed everything—obstructions and walls—in its path.

However, Kieran clearly sensed that the figure had slightly weakened.

The weakening was so subtle to the point that it was very hard for others to notice.

Though the figure wasn’t hurt, it was a fact that it had gotten weaker by a margin.

Kieran turned back around to Great Swamp.

“This may be the only good news for us. In this courtyard that my father left for me, any outsiders who utilize their transcendence powers will be restrained to a certain extent, as each time their power is used, the restraints will increase and accumulate. On top of that, outsiders can only stay in this city for an hour tops. After an hour’s duration, the restraints will happen then as well,” Great Swamp explained.

“How far do the restraints of power go?” Kieran asked the question that baffled him most.

“It leads to mortality! The powers will be temporarily gone entirely and the outsider will be transformed into a mere mortal!” said Great Swamp.

“Is there any kind of help that you can give me?” asked Kieran.

“How about my cheers?”

Great Swamp laid his hands open as if he was enjoying himself amidst the adversity.

“Sure! But please convert them into materialistic items, treasured tools, potions, pills, or whatever,” Kieran said seriously.

After he heard what Kierna said, Great Swamp stared blankly at Kieran.

“You’re kidding, right?” Great Swamp tried to test him.

“You think?”

After tossing another question back at Great Swamp, Kieran slowly walked out of the palace and stood at the end of the stairs, staring downwards.

A black mantled figure was standing on the other end.

When the hood was lifted, it revealed a very contrasting face: the left side of the face was that of a normal young man, but the right side was scarred with burnt marks.

Ugly and ferocious.

Dense, realistic malicious intent was flowing around the man like a wild beast, baring its teeth and extending its claws at Kieran.

The stone bridge and the pai-loo weren’t able to stop the malicious figure, only able to delay him for a bit at best before the figure appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

After the pai-loo lost Chi’s clone, it couldn’t even force the figure to utilize his transcendence power before being turned into a pile of rubbles.

“Bird of Death, hmph!”

While Kieran was able to see the man, the man was able to see him as well.

A light, contemptuous laugh came from the man when he saw Kieran, but Kieran ignored the provocation.

Gawk!

After the loud raven’s cry came in a bright red aviary flying in from afar.

When Great Swamp and Kieran became sworn brothers, his identity as an outsider was gone and so was the Fire Raven’s.

The restraints were lifted, and what he now had was buffs instead.

Fire Raven extended its wing and firmly landed on Kieran’s shoulder. It glanced over at the figure at the bottom of the stairs with its sharp eyes before turning into a ball of flame at Kieran’s will and fusing with him.

Then—

Huu! Huu!

Two balls of Devil Flame floated behind Kieran.

Devil Flame originally had a rank I attack, but with the buff from Fire Raven, its rank was increased by one and then there was additional one from [Fiery Sulphur]’s buff.

Kieran instantly had two rank III attack fireballs surrounding him.

He stood there and stared down at the man below him.

Following a thought from his mind, the two Devil Flames were hurled down at their target.

“Petty tricks.”

Another contemptuous laugh came from the man.

He didn’t even dodge or move away, instead transforming into a black moving light and gushing up the stairs to clash with the incoming fireballs.

BOOM! BOOM!

Amidst the huge explosions, everything crumbled!

The stairs that the black light had traveled through were crushed by its force, causing debris to fly outwards.

When the two Devil Flames touched the black moving light, they were extinguished without a sound, yet the black light didn’t even flinch.

However, under Kieran’s perception, he sensed that the man’s presence had grown weaker and then even weaker than that afterwards.

It wasn’t Kieran who had attacked though, but rather the courtyard itself.

Sou, sou sou!

The vacant space suddenly rippled like water, the waves that followed then transforming into a myriad of arrows that were fired at the black light like lasers.

The arrows came like downpouring rain but it was useless!

Every single arrow that landed on the black moving light vanished without a sound.

Other than the presence growing weaker once more, the black light appeared unscathed; the arrows didn’t even slow down his traveling speed.

Then…

Flames burned again!

Releasing a furious devil roar, blazing Devil Flame was smashed at the black light like a comet falling from the sky.

BOOM!

This time, something was different.

The black moving light slightly trembled when it was hit.

Although he quickly returned to normal, his moving speed was slightly slower than before because what he had faced this time was no longer the rank III Devil Flame but…

A charged up rank IV Devil Flame!

The attack was considered to be Kieran’s strongest attack at his current stage.

The black light, however, still showed to be contemptuous of the rank IV Devil Flame.

“This is your strongest attack? An attack like this still requires a charge up…Too far! It’s too far apart! Your flaws are everywhere!” he sneered.

Kieran didn’t pay mind to the sneers at all, only responding with another ball of Devil Flame.

Rage!

After being disregarded, an unknown rage emerged in the man’s heart.

Although the emotion was suppressed almost immediately, when the man looked at Kieran again, the killer intent in his eyes almost materialized once more.

He was anxious to kill Kieran, and in fact, he moved to do exactly that.

The black light ignored the Devil Flame smashing down at him and threw himself at Kieran like a tiger off the mountains.

However, a wide area of shadow shrouded the sky above the palace faster than he could attack Kieran.

Hundreds of thousands of intertwining arms and legs appeared out of the void.

The arms and legs kept twisting, connecting and clashing as they produced eyeball after eyeball.

A massive red eyeball formed in the middle and was shining in colorful lights.

When that layered, rounded mouth appeared with its sharp, grinding teeth that spun like a chainsaw, thousands of burning rays were fired down.

[Thousand Evil Eyes Strike]!

Boom!

Kabooom! Booom!

The Devil Flame exploded on the black light first, followed by the blanket attack from the burning rays.

The attacks, nevertheless, were useless against the black moving light, as other than weakening its presence, they didn’t cause any significant damage to it, but still, it was enough for Kieran.

He wanted to weaken his foe!

He had to weaken the black light from its irresistible power level and bring it to a point where he could put up a fight against it.

Wung!

Creature of Desire’s thousand eyes shone again.

Thousands of burning rays were poured down at the black light again, but the black light split a small portion of light from itself and headed straight for the Creature of Desire.

The Creature of Desire was torn apart without any resistance.

An agonizing wail later, it vanished without a sign.

“Petty tricks will always be petty tricks, always…”

The contemptuous words stopped abruptly when the Creature of Desire, which he had just torn apart, appeared above him again as if the disappearance from just now was nothing but an illusion.

Kieran, who stood on top of the flight of stairs, finally spoke for the first time since the encounter.

He took in a deep breath and raised his right index finger, provoking the black light to come at him.

“Come on!” he shouted.