The Devil’s Cage

Loud explosions sounded endlessly, the trembles getting fiercer.

The buildings of Ring City flew up to the sky and then the ground started to collapse, as though a giant demon opened its mouth and swallowed the entire city.

Song Shi widened her eyes in disbelief, her mouth wide open at the jaw-dropping scene.

What the hell happened?

How did Ring City vanish before her eyes?

She was just standing right there a moment ago, how could something so big vanish in an instant?

The messy thoughts made Song Shi dizzy, she didn’t even mind Kieran grabbing her by the collar and running forward. She hoped that he could run faster before the explosions were still going!

Song Shi was considered lucky, she was brought away by Kieran, who had obviously prepared for this, but the monsters in Ring City weren’t that lucky.

The majority of the monsters were bombed to pieces without knowing what happened.

Some stronger ones were heavily injured and moaned in pain in the rubble.

The strongest ones weren’t harmed by the explosions but stunned by the scene.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Where is my house? Where did it go?

Why is it so smelly?

The powerful monsters’ dull expressions were slowly replaced by rage as they watched their homes turn into ruins and bathe in vile stench, their eyes turning red and roaring furiously.

“Who!?”

“Who is it?!”

“Get the hell out!?”

The roars spread to the farthest and deepest place. Kieran could faintly hear the shouts in his ears but he didn’t care. He ran even faster because his senses picked up two terrifying auras rising up from the King City in the collapsing Ring City.

King Reow!

King Qi!

These two were standing in the center of King City.

King Qi was on the left wearing a grand, black long robe with golden linings. A golden crown was over his head and some scales were glimmering on both his cheeks, making his fairly good looks more enchanting and bewitching.

King Reow was on the right, wearing a similar black long robe with golden linings but he had bigger and longer sleeves, his golden crown had a feather of a peacock as decoration. Unlike the enchanting look of King Qi, King Reow showed off a more prestigious and noble look. He stood there like a god, injecting thoughts of kneeling and worshipping into people’s mind.

The crowns were slightly different but they represented the identity of the kings.

The two kings weren’t on their thrones anymore, the shadows that shrouded their faces had faded.

King City was caught in the explosions too and a corner of the grand hall had collapsed, the tightly woven magical formation greatly weakened after losing one end.

The magical formation lost more than just its defense, its sensitivity was weakened to a new low also.

When the explosions went off, the two kings already knew something was off, but they were one step too late from stopping it.

King Qi was using his powers to block and intercept the transportation energy. He couldn’t spare further attention for the explosions, and even if he sensed something fishy in the explosions, he was helpless against it.

King Reow was testing Scarlet and Victor with his own methods, especially the former, which attracted the whole of his attention and when King Reow realized things had gone south, it was already too late.

The two kings stood in silence in King City, glancing over the city that they ruled for a hundred years, turned to ruin. Their faces looked vengeful and the killer intents in their eyes almost materialized.

The importance of Ring City to the kings was self-explanatory, otherwise they wouldn’t have stayed for a hundred years, let alone building it from rubble.

Now?

Everything was ruined!

It was fair to say that all of their effort was rendered useless and what they did in the past hundred years had all gone to waste.

“Search for him! Get me that wretched bastard! I will make him regret coming into our world!”

King Reow yelled in a fearsome voice.

“Yes, sire!”

Group after group of royal guards charged out from the King City like fierce wolves and tigers.

They followed their instincts and searched each and every suspicious looking monster.

The royal guards needed no evidence anymore. Should the suspects resist, kill without mercy.

More shrilling screams came from the ruins. King Reow didn’t care though, he turned around to Scarlet and Victor.

“Sire, I was with you all the time! I would never commit such an atrocity!”

Scarlet the red skull said nervously when it caught the icy cold gaze of King Reow.

It knew it had to explain, otherwise the king, who was upset and going crazy, would gut its skeleton open

After all, the king was already unhappy with the red skull for a very, very long time.

Scarlet knew how serious the situation was, it lowered its head further down.

On the other side, Victor bowed camly at King Reow’s cold gaze.

“I am sorry about what happened to Ring City, I never thought something like this would happen.”

Similar to his countenance, Victor’s tone was calm as well but deep in his heart, the shock raged like a tempest.

Who!

Who was it!

Who the hell did what he ought to do before him!?

Damn it!

Bastard!

After he found out about the Reek River, Victor formed a very meticulous plan to make use of the river to achieve his goal but it must be done at the last step, not now!

Victor frowned at the ruins of Ring City, he had to change his plan and find out who the hell disrupted his perfect plan!

King Reow stared coldly at Scarlet, Victor didn’t say anything else.

The stare lasted for a few seconds before the king waved his hand.

Scarlet heaved a breath of relief in its heart as it was being spared, dragging Victor away from King City after that.

King Reow saw Scarlet and Victor off with his cold gaze.

He wasn’t sure whether or not both of them were involved but his Ring City was destroyed!

Someone had to pay for it!

Right before King Reow could make his move, King Qi stopped him by saying, “Hold on! My separation spell has been cut up! Deal with the intruders first!”

King Qi’s words were simple but they held substantial meaning.

King Reow frowned and ultimately nodded.

He knew compared to Scarlet and Victor, who he could squash any moment, those intruders were the true enemies.

If the intruders were not removed, they would be the ones to suffer.

“How are you?” King Reow asked King Qi with his soft and caring voice.

“Suffered a little repulsion. One of the intruders is very strong,” replied King Qi.

“Take a rest down here, leave the surface to me and King Liao.”

“No! It must be dealt with as soon as possible! I have a strong hunch that if we prolong it any longer, death will threaten us!” King Qi rejected the suggestion with a strong shake of head.

King Reow was shocked.

“Death will threaten us? Are you sure?”

King Reow asked in utmost seriousness, he wasn’t even that serious looking when Ring City was destroyed. He knew what King Qi’s powers were, it was the premonition against unknown and potential danger.

It was because of King Qi’s powers, the three of them overcame danger many times in the past.

“I am sure! And the feeling is getting stronger! I see flames burning, blood flowing, and a crow soaring in the sky,” King Qi nodded.

“Flame, blood, and crow?” King Reow furrowed his brows.

He had never heard of powerful crow monsters before. Although the legendary sun was allegedly a golden crow, it was just a legend, not some reliable source.

King Reow did not further ponder upon King Qi’s words, he knew how uncertain King Qi’s premonition was, for it had too many possible outcomes.

They didn’t have time to narrow down the possibilities, their priority should be removing the intruders from their kingdom!

The two kings vanished from the grand hall.

More royal guards charged out of King City, and unlike the previous scouts, the royal guards were going to war this time.

Shortly after that, the grand hall was left with only several guards to defend the empty place, and most of the guards were paying attention to the chaotic scene outside the King City.

They had never thought something this bad would happen to the King City because it seemed very unlikely.

With the three kings around, and even though they were temporarily away from their thrones, King City should be the safest place throughout the entire underground.

Therefore, none of the guards noticed the intruder lurking in the underground passageway.

Wung Wung!

The [Communication Stone] in Song Shi’s pouch vibrated, pulling her back from her trance.

Right after she pulled out the stone, Mian Yi’s voice came through.

“Miss! Miss! Is that you?”

“It’s me, Mian Yi.”

Song Shi replied normally to the anxious butler and after Mian Yi heard Song Shi’s reply, he couldn’t help but heave a breath of relief.

“Great! This is great! Thank god you are okay! The Battle of Winter Night has been canceled! I am coming for you now and I’ll catch you up with the details after you come back,” Mian Yi replied, going to activate his backup plan.

“Hold on Mian Yi! I am safe but I have something that I must tell you!” Song Shi stopped her butler from taking her back.

The details that Mian Yi mentioned weren’t that important to her, for she knew better since she was inside the venue.

From Victor to Du to the recent consecutive explosions, Song Shi knew everything.

Unknowingly, Song Shi looked towards Kieran.

He was still his usual self, cold and calm.

‘Don’t you have emotions?

You just blew the city of monsters to the sky, can’t you be more excited about it?’

Song Shi criticized him in his heart and then told Mian Yi everything that the little group found out.

She skipped the part where Kieran blew up an entire city though. She wasn’t afraid to tell but her instinct told her something bad would happen if she said it.

‘Yes!

This must be it!

My instinct tells me to keep quiet!’

Song Shi comforted herself with some excuse and then spoke quickly, explaining the situation clearly to Mian Yi.

“Lord Victor committed such an atrocity?!” Mian Yi cried out in shock.

He did not believe that Judge Victor would do something like this.

There was no obvious benefits for Victor to cause such a scene but he also believed the young mistress would not lie to him.

Who to trust between his young mistress and Victor?

The answer was self-explanatory.

“My lady, I will deliver the news to everyone else. Please be safe.”

[Communication Stone] then dimmed down.

Song Shi kept the stone back into her pouch and then looked at Kieran.

“What are we going to do next?” she asked.

“Wait,” Kieran replied.

“Wait?” Song Shi was startled.

It wasn’t what she expected from Kieran!

After blowing up the entire city of monsters, shouldn’t he seize the chance and siege what was left, completing the task with one stroke?

Why wait?

Unless…

“You don’t want to fight those monsters that smell like shit?” Song Shi wondered.

It wasn’t a joke, but a real speculation.

If it was her in Kieran’s shoes, she wouldn’t do it either. She didn’t want to even get close to the monsters that smelled like shit, it was very scary!

The slightest thought about it would cause goosebumps all over he body.

Kieran shot a glance at her in silence, he wasn’t used to telling others his plan.

Even though the plan was halfway to completion, before the other half was complete, everything was still up in the air.

More so, what comes after this was the real deal, the finale of the whole show.

Similarly, Du’s importance as the monster who executed the second half of the plan rose higher in Kieran’s list.

As a matter of fact, after Kieran dominated Du and knew it was very good in digging, its importance had far surpassed the foxy girl behind him.

After all, that Reek River was too eye-catching. The sewage gas from the river was so high that Kieran was unable to turn away from it, plus it was very near Ring City.

A bold plan formed in his mind: reverse the current of the river and redirect it into the underground of Ring City.

A little spark would ignite the methane filled river and blast the whole city to the surface.

The whole plan was very simple, with Du on his side, there were no difficulties at all.

As for the moat outside the Mou City Sector?

With White as the gatekeeper, which was also Kieran’s subordinate, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Everything was smooth, just like what Kieran expected.

Kieran knew that he had finally got the upper hand for the first time in this competition with Victor and the red skull.

Kieran had no idea what Victor wanted to achieve ultimately, the same went for the red skull, but he knew once he blew up the whole Ring City, Victor and the red skull’s plans would die together. The explosions would blast more than just the city, they would shatter their plans to pieces!

The explosions sent Victor and the red skull back to the starting point with Kieran, or worse. There was a high chance that Victor and the red skull would piss off the three kings.

The three powerful kings of Ring City would not sit back and do nothing while their city was blasted to the surface.

No one could bear watching their kingdom get leveled down to ruble, let alone the kings of the monsters.

The desperate situation of Victor and the red skull put a smile on Kieran’s face.

His opponent had set up a game of chess and invited him to play a game that he would surely lose.

He didn’t know what others would do if they were in his shoes but he would sweep all the chess pieces on the ground, take the chessboard, and smash his foe’s face until the board was broken.

If he still couldn’t vent his anger, he would deliver more kicks, at the face and the weak spots.

Since he was going up against his enemies, there was no reason for him to hold back.

After that, he would pick up his own chess pieces and stomp on his foe’s.

In fact, he was doing exactly that.

He contacted White to leave some vague evidence behind and told it to ‘die’.