The Devil’s Cage

The captain from War God Temple wasn’t surprised when Bloody Mary and the believers of the Mist started praying.

When war was inevitable, people ought to use the most direct and destructive way to destroy the enemy.

For a religious sect that worshipped a God, nothing would be more direct and destructive than asking the God himself to destroy their opponent!

‘Victory! We will surely win!’

Recalling the glorious war achievements of the God he believed in, the captain’s heart calmed down quickly.

The God of War, as its name suggested, was a battle fanatic, and after acquiring a divinity which matched his personality, the title matched him even more as he was able to emerge a victor against almost all his opponents.

According to the records in War God Temple, the God of War once battled the Twelve Giants that wreaked havoc across the land. He slaughtered them and built his throne using their bones.

Then he fought the Six Sea Demons, won, and added their whiskers beside his boney throne as a garnish.

Lastly, he hunted down the three-headed hawk that reigned the sky, using the feathers and talons to build his kingdom, ascending to godship there onwards.

All these were plucked from the legends of God of War.

Whether it was true or false, one could hardly tell.

However, one thing was for sure: the God of War was used to war and battles and he was very powerful.

Before the wretched Lady Calamity came into play, he was the only belief in the whole of Northern Land.

The captain had solid reasons to believe they would triumph over this little confrontation.

The Mist religious sect would be eliminated!

After all, the Mist religious sect was nothing but a rising small sect. The only notable achievement they had was the battle with the pagans back in Sicar.

That kind of skimirish was nothing in the eyes of God of War.

Some higher ranking priests could even single-handedly slaughter those pagans who had just achieved descension.

As a matter of fact, not only the captain thought as such, the others surrounding him shared the same thought too.

The power of God of War had rooted itself deeply into people’s hearts.

Even with the appearance of Lady Calamity, she failed to truly turn it to her favour, at most matching the God of War.

What a pity, bishop!

The people in the area stared at Bloody Mary with a pitiful gaze.

The old marquis who oversaw everything from aside couldn’t help but smile. This was the scene that he hoped to see.

Whether it was the God of War’s power or the sudden rise to prominence of Mist, as long as both of them confronted each other and fought, his goal would be achieved.

He and his king needed the two religious sects to fight each other, not team up as allies.

Only then could the authority of the king truly make a comeback and rise to the top.

Gods assigning royal authority to the king?

Hmph!

The old marquis laughed coldly deep in his heart, then looked up at the dark cloud in the sky.

Countless bolts of lightning amassed and rumbled fiercely.

He then shifted his gaze back to the ground.

Thick mist concealed the believers of Mist whole. Even from where he was standing, he couldn’t make out anyone’s figure.

Lightning versus mist?

The old marquis put away the grin on his mouth and looked serious.

Although his goal was met, the old marquis wouldn’t mind observing his opponents’ strength.

To know one’s strength and the enemy’s was the sure way to victory.

The old marquis understood that saying.

As the old marquis bathed himself with anticipation—

KAKROOOM!

A bolt of lightning fell from the sky.

…

Kieran had been paying attention to the changes at the city gates. Using [Lord of Mist], he replied to Bloody Mary’s request without delay and granted it [Blessing].

A scarlet glow flashed over Bloody Mary quickly.

Feeling the empowerment from Blessing of Bloodthirsty, Bloody Mary used the mist as cover and jumped into the air, jumping straight to the bolt of lightning.

The bolt of lightning precisely struck Bloody Mary but it didn’t inflict any damage on its body.

After reaching rank II, Bloody Mary’s special attribute, [Phantasm Body], granted it immunity against all physical damage and reduced energy damage by a hefty 60%; Blessing of Bloodthirsty increased its strength by 105% and reduced damage taken by 60%. It could also absorb the enemy’s blood to replenish its own life force.

With the two attributes overlapping each other, Bloody Mary was immune at the moment to any kind of energy damage, yet it didn’t mean invincibility.

The bolt of lightning carried more than just pure electric damage, it also carried the will of God of War!

It was also a pure mental attack!

It was vast and powerful! The keen mental attack invaded Bloody Mary’s body upon hitting it.

Bloody Mary shuddered fiercely.

An unfamiliar willpower invading its body was definitely not some beautiful experience. Even though it was prepared to withstand the attack, the tremendous pain twisted its face to the extreme.

The willpower inside its body did not hold back at all, it wanted to tear Bloody Mary’s soul into shreds, but…

Inside Bloody Mary’s body, that willpower couldn’t locate Bloody Mary’s soul!

What it found was another substantial and unbelievable energy: the power of contract!

The willpower of God of War quivered.

Sensing the vast as the milky way power of the contract, it thought it saw a God with ‘contracts’ as divinity, otherwise why would the power of contract be so vast?

Was the amount of power accumulated by pieces, contract after contract?

Who would be so lame, forming that many contracts?

Shouldn’t forming a contract cost a lot?

Doubts plagued the willpower of the God of War with hesitance, somewhat at a loss of action.

But quickly, the willpower followed its instinct and fought through the layers of contracts before it.

The soul of its target hid behind the many layers of contract. It could easily pinpoint where it was, but to its surprise, beyond the layers of contract, there were no cover ups.

As though it was a broad empty avenue.

Without a second of delay, the willpower charged into the broad avenue.

Since it couldn’t destroy the body of its target, it ought to destroy the contract target!

The contract power was vast, had it destroyed anyone of them, a chain reaction would happen and a catastrophic damage would spread.

The willpower of God of War was utmost certain.

As for the possibility of the contract power being a trap?

The willpower of God of War didn’t care.

The other one was confronting its true self on the other side.

Other than that wretched hag, who else could be his match?

If it was under normal circumstances, that wretched hag would only cost him more time to kill. The situation at hand was a little special, that was why the wretched hag was able to seemingly be a match to him.

As the one and only God in the whole of Northern Lands, the God of War was proud.

The pride in being the supreme being in the land extended to the willpower that he sent out.

Therefore… when the willpower landed in an expanse of wilderness, it got lost.

As it gazed upon the dark, chaotic wilderness that no life could survive in , it couldn’t believe that its target’s soul would be here.

Any kind of normal soul would be driven mad by the loneliness in the wasteland.

Or should it be the one on the other side of the contract was a madman?

Otherwise, there was no reason for him to form that many contracts.

The guess in its mind did not delay the willpower of God of War from moving out.

It started to conjure its own power to disrupt this wasteland, this bleak world.

Although the world inside a madman would be much sturdier than a normal one, compared to its true self, it would be nothing.

Even though this wasteland was the soul world of the so-called Mist, it worried about nothing.

Quite the contrary, it hoped for it to be like this.

A demi-god was powerful, far more powerful than a mortal, but compared to a true god, what would it be?

Therefore, the willpower of God of War started to spin, releasing its own energy into this soul world.

However, seconds later, the willpower realized something was wrong.

This dreaded soul world was unusually sturdy.

It was far sturdier than what a demi-god could achieve, and…

While the willpower of the God of War pondered the question, it sensed something and looked up intuitively.

It saw a gigantic palm of flame falling from the sky above it!

The last thing that it could remember was being slammed into the ground by the gigantic blazing palm and cracks all over its body echoing in its ears.

Crack!

Kieran was munching on a cartilage.

This piece of pork rib was specially chosen, almost every single piece had substantial meat coupled with fatty oil. In between the fat and lean mean was the small cartilages, like the treasure hidden underground.

With the explosion of flavour when his tongue tasted the meat juices and the crunchy feel as he munched on the cartilages, Kieran couldn’t help but praise it.

The simplest way of cooking could bring out the best taste of the ingredients.

There was no need for extra seasoning, neither should there be extra procedures to cure it.

Gluttony also agreed to the thought as it was munching on the willpower of God of War with a nodding head. He agreed with his big brother with all his heart, just like always.

The happy munches from his mouth expressed how delighted he was.

Today was a good day for Gluttony for it was the first time he was able to taste the willpower of a God.

He didn’t have to spend any effort or say anything, the food was delivered to his mouth and all he had to do was open and eat it. What else was better than food that was fed to him?

The food that was fed was utmost delicious.

The willpower of God of War rivaled the tastiest soup.

It wasn’t just rich, it was fresh to the mouth and not oily at all, even with a prolonged drinking.

When the initial taste fading, a richer flavour followed. The substantial taste of the willpower of the God of War this time became the bone marrow of a cow’s big bone. The tenderness of the bone marrow remained and it tasted very similar to sucking on meat. A single slurp could suck all the bone marrow into his mouth.

After the initial taste faded, the aftertaste kicked in and spread. The willpower of God of War turned soft and crunchy, like a giant squid being fried on the iron pan. Oil was brushed over one side, seasoning paste on the other, sesame and peanut crumbs scattered on top of it as garnish. The moment Gluttony put it into his mouth, he couldn’t get enough of it.

“I-Is there anymore?” Gluttony asked as he slurped his saliva and stuttered.

“There is,” Kieran said in a sure tone.

Losing a part of his willpower without a reason, the God of War would not let this slip.

Similar to Kieran’s expectation, after the first willpower was eaten by Gluttony, the sky above Edatine Castle city gates and the dark rumbling cloud became fiercer. A moment later, three bolts of lightning fell down simultaneously.

Bloody Mary acted like a lightning rod, catching all three bolts of lightning precisely.

Its body then twitched non-stop. It too wanted to react to the bolts of lightning calmly and pretend that it was fine, but it was too excruciating. The best it could do was keep its painful screams at bay.

Three more willpower of the God of War gushed into Bloody Mary’s body and without further ado, they followed the path of the first through the vast amount of contracts and arrived at the vast expanse of wilderness.

Compared to the solo entry before, these three will power stood back to back, scanning around in a vigilant state.

They had no idea what happened to the first but they knew something was wrong with this place.

Any careless misstep would put them on a path similar to their predecessor.

Therefore, despite having conjured their powers and hoping to destroy this strange soul world, they were quite reserved this time and held back a lot.

They conjured powers only 50% stronger than the previous one to attack, the rest of their powers were reserved for defense and precautions.

Their vigilance seemed to reward them with results!

When the wilderness started to shake, the three willpower of God of War looked at the figure that appeared at the furthest part of the horizon simultaneously.

At the very next moment, as though they traveled through space, the three willpower of God of War appeared before the figure.

This figure was a knight kneeling down on the ground.

The knight was fully armored, looking at the sea and gazing upon the rise and fall of the tides.

The knight wasn’t even affected by the abrupt appearance of the three willpower.

He sat there without moving, not even lifting his head.

The three willpower channeled their powers and launched their strongest attack at the knight.

Sword! Spear! Battle axe!

Three different types of weapons appeared in their respective hands with a single thought and were swung at the knight in union.

The sword went for the throat, the spear went for the abdomen, and the battle axe swung down from above his head.

The knight’s armor?

They saw it but they didn’t think the knight’s armor could stop their materialized weapons.

They believed their weapons could shatter the armor, together with the person inside it.

Kaboom!

The three different attacks landed at the knight at the same time, then… the three of them were shattered to pieces together.

The willpower of God of War dissipated again.

Gluttony, who had been waiting, cheered and sucked in all the shattered willpower into his mouth like a tornado, loud munches sounding from his mouth.

During other times, Gluttony preferred to swallow, then chew, but this was an exception because the food was tasty enough!

Kieran sensed the Origin Forces in his body growing at an exponential speed. He didn’t feel any discomfort. He was used to this kind of empowerment, neither did he dislike it.

Similar to how he wouldn’t mind heating up his breakfast before eating every morning.

A meticulous charcoal stove appeared on the study table before him.

The charcoal stove was used as a heater but Kieran used it for its original purpose: to heat up food. The intricate porcelain plate was placed on top of the stove, the slightly cold pork rib then placed on top with added soup.

With the high temperature from the burning charcoal, the soul boiled after a while.

Bup, bup, bup.

The boiled soup was poured back into the pork rib.

The fragrance of food spread in the study room.

With a smile on his face, Kieran put several sausages into the soup.

He then waited for the food to be tastier and the next attack from God of War.

It was without a doubt that God of War ought to be cautious after failing twice in a row.

The dark cloud rumbled and thunder claps were restless, but no bolt of lightning came down.

The God of War was charging his powers, for he still hasn’t located the source of the problem.

But he knew with enough power, he could destroy the question entirely.

He did it before and he would do it again, this time was no exception!

Kakroooom!

Amid the ear-deafening clap, blinding light shone and a bolt of lightning, as thick as a dozen meters and reeking of destruction, struck Bloody Mary whole.