The Devil’s Cage

Bloody Mary was walking along the street to Wallway Street 13th in Kieran’s face.

It casually walked along the street at an average pace but its heart was beating like a war drum. Kieran did not hide what he knew from Bloody Mary.

Their opponent this time might very well be the Witch!

It may be just some reactive mechanic that she left behind and now the Witch herself. Regardless of which, Bloody Mary felt anxious.

Bloody Mary knew there must be something in her that lived up to her name. More so, it knew how cautious its boss was about her.

Bloody Mary might neglect caution from others but its boss?

Bloody Mary had gone through a lot with Kieran, from a slightly stronger common man to transcendant level and now even comparable to the gods, so it knew what kind of person its boss was.

Vigilant, calm, and brave.

Kieran was fearless against despair and always gained from taking risks, hence the rapid growth.

Throughout his growth process, any misstep could doom him beyond redemption, so Bloody Mary dared not neglect its boss’ cautiousness.

More importantly, with its boss’ current power level, there were only a few that its boss was cautious against, and the mysterious Witch was definitely on top of the list.

Bloody Mary quietly took a deep breath when it almost reached the door of Wallway Street 13th.

However, just as it was walking towards the door, it suddenly turned up and looked at the empty space.

Bloody Mary couldn’t see anything but sensed malicious intentions, very subtle and faint, but definitely there.

Without further thought, Bloody Mary backed off.

Yee!

An eagle’s cry sounded.

As ripples happened in the empty space, a black shadow flew down with an absurd speed that exceeded Bloody Mary’s expectations, like a bolt of lightning flying towards it.

Bloody Mary quickly transformed into its illusory state.

The black shadow flew through Bloody Mary and appeared behind it, revealing its true form: an eagle.

This eagle was extremely huge, as big as an adult woman.

Unlike other eagles, who were mostly brown, white and yellow, it was a grayish, white color; its beak—unlike a normal eagle’s crooked beak—was as sharp as a dagger in terms of size and shape.

Yee?

The special eagle cried out in confusion, not understanding why its diving strike had missed. It didn’t stop its second attack though.

Yee!

The eagle opened its large dagger-like beak, a sharp cry sounded right away. The cry caused ripples in the air in front of the eagle and traveled in a straight 90° direction. As though it was water boiling, when Bloody Mary—in its illusory state—was hit by the ripples, it fell down from mid-air and stared at the eagle in shock.

Bloody Mary was quite confident with its hiding technique, similar to its proudful ‘undead’ traits, but now, its hiding technique was easily broken by an eagle. Bloody Mary looked heavier than ever because it didn’t just fall out from the space, it sensed that the space ‘rejected’ its entry, meaning it could no longer transform to its illusory state.

“What kind of special ability is this?”

Bloody Mary raised its hand and entered a battle stance.

Since it couldn’t be avoided, it would have to fight.

However, to its surprise, the eagle gazed at Bloody Mary, sizing it up for a moment before flapped its wings and flying away.

It didn’t attack, it left.

‘It saw through my disguise?’

Bloody Mary looked at the flying eagle in shock.

It was already shocked when it was exposed from its illusory state; it was further astonished when its disguise was seen through.

Disguise was a demon’s natural skill, the very first skill every demon learned after they took form, it could even be considered a demon’s talent.

Throughout the lengthy growing period, the disguise skill would grow together; it was the skill that saved a demon’s life and also enabled it to hunt for prey.

Especially when Bloody Mary reached rank II, its disguise skill had reached the acme of perfection. It didn’t just allow Bloody Mary to look exactly like its target, it enabled it to possess the unique presence also.

In simple words, when it took Kieran’s form, it naturally possessed a bit of Kieran’s temperament and aura, even the closest acquaintances could barely tell the difference.

And now, a never before seen eagle saw through its disguise during the first encounter…

‘It’s my bane!’

The term came up in Bloody Mary’s mind unconsciously and it caused a lot of discomfort throughout its body.

It didn’t know whether or not its ‘undead’ ability was restricted as well, and if it was…

Bloody Mary shuddered. It didn’t want to think about it, it was a very scary thought.

However, it showed a fortunate smile right away because it wasn’t fighting alone!

It was always the bait for its boss, so the real attack wouldn’t be from Bloody Mary.

KABOOOM!

As the eagle flapped its wings and soared, Devil Flame exploded in mid-air and crashed into it head on. Following the explosion, the large eagle was completely engulfed in flames but it did not die like any other living being.

It flew out of the flames with a few burn marks on its grayish white feathers.

But it was just the first Devil Flame!

After it flew out of the first, a second Devil Flame was already waiting in its trajectory, crashed into it without missing again.

Kabooom!

As the second explosion happened, the scorching flames burst out in all directions and created a giant fire sphere over a dozen meters in size.

Kieran watched the scene quietly, his powerful Intuition capturing the eagle’s movements and with a single thought another Devil Flame burst out of thin air.

There were no enemies that one Devil Flame couldn’t kill.

If there was, Kieran would blast it a hundred times!

If a hundred times couldn’t?

A thousand times! Eventually, the enemy would be burnt to ashes!

With that simple thought in mind, Kieran created more Devil Flames in the sky with his thought—a second Devil Flame was also created from his hand.

Two balls of flame were like missiles launching at the eagle—engulfed in flames—from Kieran’s hands.

Kabooom!

Under Kirean’s precise calculation, the two Devil Flames hit the burning eagle without miss.

And then, two more Devil Flames were blasted out.

Once the momentum was going, it never stopped.

Kieran never showed mercy to his enemies and since he gained the upper hand, he’d want to bring out his biggest guns to the fight.

Yee!

The eagle that was hit by multiple Devil Flame cried out in rage.

The space boiled up again.

The burning Devil Flame continued but it was slowly getting blocked out, as though an invisible barrier was forming in between the eagle and the flames.

Devil Flame was burning the barrier and the eagle behind it was fine, except…

The burnt feathers!

After suffering multiple Devil Flames, the special eagle lost its valiantness. It wasn’t just burned black, a big part of the feathers at its wings were burnt off also, making it look more like a bald chicken than an eagle.

The eagle cried furiously when it noticed how badly it was burnt.

It disappeared from the sky and when it reappeared, it was above Kieran!

That glaring sharp claws were going down at Kieran’s head.

It was quick! As fast as instant teleportation!

Even for Kieran, it was a first!

Against a claw attack with such absurd speed coming down from above, a normal high-ranker could not have dodged it, even some of the high tier high-rankers had no choice but to withstand it.

Kieran was different though, with a lot of ways to deal with the situation.

His eyes were shining with an unusual glare!

[Half-dead’s Gaze, Deadman’s Gaze]!

The mental impact consisting of Kieran’s strongest Spirit was shot into the eagle’s eyes.

The eagle froze for a moment, its claws paused if, but it quickly broke free from the illusions.

At the next moment…

Sssss!

Relentless hissing sounded. Black snakes, as thick as water barrels and as long as a car, with spear-like spears, sprung out from the ground. They bared fangs as sharp as blades as they jumped on the eagle to bind it.

Yee!

Another eagle cry sounded, the space around the eagle boiling again.

Unlike earlier where the eagle shielded itself from the flames, the ripples from the boiling air were like a tidal wave, shattering all the giant snakes that jumped on the eagle.

The giant snakes were shattered into nothing but the hissing remained.

As the first wave of giant snakes vanished, another wave sprung up from the ground.

Sssssss!

The snake hisses got louder and more concentrated.

The eagle, which had freed itself from the constricting snakes, got tangled up again.

[Sword Skill, Myriad Snake, Ouroboros]!

Kieran spent three times his normal Stamina consumption to reset the cooldown of the skill and performed it again, [Sword Skill, Myriad Snake]!

Obviously the eagle didn’t have skills like [Ouroboros], so the space boiling skill must have a cooldown timer.

While its skill was on cooldown, it could only rely on its willpower to fight Kieran’s Spirit.

Opposing a rank V Spirit wasn’t easy, especially when [Sword Skill, Myriad Viper, Viper Venom]’s effect was +1 to Spirit and +4 to Intuition authentication, which was difficult for the eagle to break free.

Tssss!

Sparks of electricity swirled around Kieran’s [Brutal Lightning Hand]—his left hand glove—a bolt of lightning spear then formed on his hand and was hurled towards the eagle tangling with the snakes. The lightning spear shattered upon impact and enveloped the eagle with electric sparks.

Then…

Kakrooom!

A bolt of lightning fell down from the sky and struck the electrocuted eagle. The rank III thunder strike obviously frightened it.

A translucent figure filled with an icy cold presence seized the chance and latched itself onto the eagle.

After the curse was lifted and absorbed [Divine Frost Energy (False)], [Wilco’s Redemption] didn’t just get a power up, it acquired a new attribute also.

[Chilling Spirit], which was modeled after Wilco, had the attributes of a spirit and the traits of Frost, showing absolute loyalty to Kieran. When it latched itself onto the eagle, it released its Frost Energy to form a layer of ice on the eagle’s body

The electrocution from the lightning and the freezing from the ice caused the eagle more discomfort as it struggled, but the real binding had yet to come.

Bang!

A 20 meter radius spider web with extreme stickiness and poison fell from the sky.

The eagle was caught by the web as it lost ground to dodge.

Hell Fiend Spider Fire’s effect was activated!

Images of monstrous entities appeared from the fire, each of them roaring at the trapped eagle.

Another round of Spirit and Intuition authentication happened to the tangled up eagle, which was already struggling with the snakes, electrocution, and freezing, so when the second round authentication happened, it exhausted itself.

Especially when the eagle failed one of the authentication, the rank V Spirit mental impact blasted its brain, causing the eagle to cry in pain.

The enemy’s pain did not result in mercy from Kieran

He coldly looked at the struggling eagle before the area plunged into darkness.

[Dawn Descend]!

Kieran activated [Blade of the Daybreaker]’s effect and three [Extreme Night] floated above him. The three pitch black blades chimed loudly.

Buzzz!

The blade chimed and shook the air.

The eagle struggled fiercely when [Extreme Night] came into play. It was threatened but it did not change the outcome.

One after another, [Extreme Night] fell down on the eagle.

The dark swing from the blade was like a black crescent moon, none of its slashes missing, all three slashes landing precisely at the eagle’s neck.

A total of 9 slashes with rank IV attack landed on the eagle’s neck, the slashes ripping the skin apart and badly mutilating it.

At the same time, three black moving lights attached themselves to Kieran, making his already black outlook darker, as though he had put on a dark cape.

Kieran felt extremely safe with three layers of [Night Veil] that had rank IV defenses each, grabbing the hilt of [Extreme Night] under his black feather mantle.

Chang!

The real [Extreme Night] was as black as the other copies but the main blade had a faint black light glimmering across the body. The black blade body was as dark as a black hole, even affecting the light around it.

[Extreme Night] with the buff from [Blade of the Daybreaker, Sword Type Enhance II], swiftly reaching new heights.

[Extreme Night] alone already had rank IV rarity and attack, but it truly reached rank V after the little bump up.

A rank V rarity and attack.

Players changed during rank V and so did items!

Something contained deep inside [Extreme Night] showed signs of waking up.

The signs caused the eagle to cry in fear.

Slash!

Kieran jumped up and swung [Extreme Night] down, a violent wind following his motion.

Fuaaaa!

After an explosion of violent airstream, the eagle stopped struggling. Kieran appeared behind the eagle, his black feather mantle fluttering loudly.

He landed firmly on the ground and slowly sheathed his blade.

Kak!

When the blade was sheathed, the floating eagle behind Kieran fell down to the ground.

A straight cut appeared on that badly mutilated neck and the moment it touched the ground, blood splashed as its head fell away from its body.