The Devil’s Cage

Laughing, Sloth was still sleepy.

Even though he was bound mid-air the next second, his countenance did not change.

The invisible power shackled Sloth’s body, as if an invisible giant hand had grabbed him by the back of his neck and moved him to the Witch.

The visible chin under the hood was dry and sharp, as if it was a tree branch that forked out from the trunk, trying to pierce Sloth in the head. Sloth, despite being bound by the invisible force, widened his eyes and looked down at the ‘branch’.

The Witch obviously didn’t like others looking at her like that.

After she bound Sloth, she floated up into the air. In the night of the harsh winter, she was like the devil that walked out from the dark, looking down on the mortal realm.

Anyone who looked at her would be frozen instantly. Sloth was an exception, because when her freezing gaze arrived, Sloth closed his eyes.

If he could, he’d take a mirror and show the Witch how she looked and reflect her icy gaze back at her, but unfortunately, he couldn’t do such a thing.

Even if he could, it would be useless.

The Witch wasn’t someone who would be harmed by her own powers, even if… she still wasn’t the mature version of herself.

According to big brother’s theory, the Witch before his eyes was the Witch a moment before she became the one who was feared by all.

They had entered a time which was purposely extracted, a very important time.

Based on the observation that he had, Sloth was certain that his big brother’s theory was correct.

This would be a lot easier. Sloth heaved a sigh of relief.

“You know me? I hate your smile.”

Amid the question, which sounded in an affirmative tone, the Witch raised her dry hand, her branch-like fingers touching Sloth by the cheek and starting to move.

A line of blood was drawn by the motion.

A deep cut that revealed Sloth’s bones appeared across his face in an arch.

The lazy looking Sloth instantly looked ugly, especially when the Witch purposely connected the cut to the edge of Sloth’s mouth, a very strange look appearing on Sloth’s face.

Looking down at Sloth, the Witch was admiring her masterpiece.

She carefully lifted Sloth’s face and tried to wipe away the blood.

‘You are really out of your mind,’ Sloth sighed sadly in his heart.

Through the plethora of information, he had already known enough about the Witch before his eyes.

Other than being an acknowledged powerhouse, she was scary and crazy.

Most of the people would think that being scary and crazy were just an extension of her powers, but after Sloth landed his eyes on the Witch, he was certain that the description was not the extension of her powers, it was something else.

His natural gifts and the adopted, altered abilities allowed him to easily pry into people’s emotions, or even memories, as long as the target was standing in front of him.

Besides that, he could also send many hints into the target’s mind through different kinds of influence.

But now? He wasn’t able to sense any emotions that a normal person should have in the woman before his eyes. All he sensed was a messy excitement.

No! It wasn’t exactly messy, only a normal person would assume it was messy.

In her own thoughts, messy was a norm. She had no problems with herself and the most straightforward example was drawing a smiley face on Sloth’s face.

“You look a lot better now,” said the Witch.

“Is there a mirror around? I want to have a look at your craft,” said Sloth.

He has anticipation in his words, as if he was really looking forward to the smiley face on his face.

The Witch was obviously surprised. Then, she took a mirror out from her robe and put it in front of Sloth.

“The arch is not too good, you can draw better,” said Sloth after a careful look.

Then, before Sloth could continue with his banter, the Witch put away the mirror.

“Do you think you can fool me?” The Witch’s voice started to turn sharp.

Amid the messy excitement, an extra sharp emotion was added on top.

Puk!

Before Sloth could carefully sense her emotion, his chest was perforated.

The Witch was slightly stunned after she plunged her hand into Sloth’s chest. It was like she was wondering why she stabbed Sloth with her hand, and after a quick thought, she felt like it was nothing, but the habit that stayed in her body told her that she should do something.

She removed her hand from Sloth’s left chest and punched another hole in Sloth’s right chest to make it even. She moved backwards in panic but a happy chuckle sounded from her mouth.

“Hehehe.”

It only sounded for a second.

The Witch then hopped around Sloth for several rounds before she pulled Sloth’s right hand and pinched the fingers with her dry fingers.

She asked as she pinched, “Did you see my little bear?”

Her voice wasn’t rough anymore, it sounded pleasant this time.

If it wasn’t for that mummified face, Sloth would think he’d met a little girl, a very naive and pure little girl.

“Why aren’t you talking? You don’t want to play with me?”

Amid her pleasant voice, a clear cracking noise sounded.

Each time the Witch spewed a word, she’d crush a section of Sloth’s finger by pinching it with her dried fingers.

Pain stung Sloth again and again, but he wasn’t moved at all. He tilted his head and looked at the Witch, widening his mouth as if he was trying to say something but no words came out.

Pak!

The Witch slapped him.

“I told you to speak louder!” The voice of the Witch changed again, it was loud and powerful this time, sounding like a man’s voice.

Her condition lasted for a very short time, and around ten seconds later, the Witch returned to her normal self, like when Sloth first met her.

She looked at Sloth coldly, “You’ve discovered my secret!”

Sloth couldn’t help but flip a white eye at the Witch.

‘What was there to discover? Aren’t you putting it on display?’

“I feel like you are thinking about something that frustrates me. Nevermind, I will forgive you, the dead are always worthy of forgiveness,” The Witch then swung her hand in circles.

Kak!

Sloth, who was bound in the air, felt an irresistible force at his neck that spun his head 720°, his head only stopping after spinning for two whole rounds, but the stop was just for a second.

At the next second, Sloth cocked his own head up and his head spun the other direction for two more rounds, returning to his normal position.

“I feel like my eyes are able to see better after I’ve twisted my head back. What do you think?” Sloth showed a smile as he tilted his head, the smile looking very weird considering the corner of his mouth was cut open.

“Immortality?” The Witch sounded surprised but she quickly put her hand on Sloth’s body.

Unlike before, when she did not really touch Sloth, she truly put her hands on Sloth’s body.

Bang!

Right after the Witch’s hand touched Sloth, Sloth exploded, not in a bloody and gory way but he disintegrated into powder.

Fuuu!

The night breeze blew, carrying the powder into the night sky.

Several seconds later, the powder reformed into a human figure.

Bloody Mary took shape and faltered backwards, looking at the Witch with an ugly look.

It was heavily damaged like never before, the Witch’s power threatening its very core.

‘I can hold on two more times, TOPS!’ Bloody Mary told its boss through the power of the contract.

The moment the Witch saw Bloody Mary, who was disguised as Sloth, her insane mind immediately reacted to what happened.

“Demon!” she muttered.

Her mummified face twitched.

Then, a white light started to gather around Bloody Mary.

Tssssss!

As if a chunk of butter was tossed onto a sizzling plate, Bloody Mary melted right away.

Whilte it was melting away, its immortality trait felt like it had vanished, the power from the Witch seemed to counter its own. The pain that it suffered was amplified ten times, a hundred times, and then a thousand times.

“Aaaaaargh!” Bloody Mary squealed in pain.

The Witch then sprinted towards the temple of Lady Calamity without sparing another gaze at Bloody Mary.

Inside the temple, the real Sloth was standing under Lady Calamity’s statue. The priests and believers of Lady Calamity around him were put to sleep by him.

The Witch appeared in the temple, but before she could do anything, Sloth yawned and disappeared.

The Witch didn’t chase after Sloth. She looked at the statue of Lady Calamity and checked it carefully.

Then, questions appeared on her face.

…

A while later, back at the Mist camp…

“Do you think we can fool her?”

The weak Bloody Mary curled up in the corner of the tent.

It could no longer maintain its human form anymore after sustaining that kind of damage from the Witch. The best it could do was appear in a small body to continue existing in the public eye, like a black cat.

“No we can’t. She’s crazy, not an idiot. All I hope to do is stall her slightly. It was her backup to devour Calamity, after all. The little tricks we came up in a short time could only stall her for a very short time and that’s the best we can do. Anything better than that is almost impossible,” Sloth shook his head firmly.

“Then you shouldn’t stand there just now, at least do something to the statue, beat it or something, so that you can stall her for longer,” Bloody Mary, in the form of a black cat, raised its paw and extended its nail, showing a mischievous look.

“It’s useless. It will only expose our stalling game quicker, we didn’t really do anything you know,” Sloth shook his head again.

Bloody Mary didn’t argue with that because it was a fact.

According to their initial plan, Sloth was supposed to destroy Lady Calamity’s statue, but the seemingly normal statue of Lady Calamity was a lot sturdier than the statue of God of War, which was covered in his own divine light.

From a certain perspective, it shouldn’t be described as sturdy anymore. Technically speaking, the defense of the statue was at least rank V or above.

Sloth was helpless against such a ridiculously high defense, but it also proved that the statue of Lady Calamity was the key for the Witch to take over Lady Calamity’s powers. In short and simple terms, as long as she got her hands on the key, with a little ritual, the Witch could easily become Lady Calamity, or in a more appropriate way, she would become her true self!

Therefore, after some thoughts, Sloth called Bloody Mary to buy him some time.

“Let’s hope the boss can deal with the trouble soon,” Bloody Mary inhaled deeply.

“The trouble that big brother has to deal with isn’t just those two Gods. And speaking from a certain angle, I am not worried about big brother at all. I am worried about things that we cannot ‘touch’,” Sloth’s words had some other meaning in between the lines.

Bloody Mary kept quiet, knowing what Sloth meant, but it was something that it couldn’t touch or provide the slightest help.

“Let’s go. Let’s do what we can for now and hope that the backup of that Witch isn’t too harsh. I am not good at fighting,” Sloth pointed at the simple funeral that was happening further away.

The funeral was held for Miers.

Although Miers had transformed into the Witch, Sloth couldn’t confirm whether Miers was replaced or if she had a title like his big brother’s 2567?

But one thing was for sure: that crazy Witch wouldn’t accept a simple funeral.

She ought to attract more attention so that people would neglect the changes that were going to happen to Lady Calamity.

It was good news though.

It didn’t just clearly state that the process would be very long, it also stated that the Witch would be very weak in the process. Otherwise, given how crazy she was, there was no reason for her to go to such an extent.

It would be an opportunity for his big brother!

And the purpose of their existence was to increase the odds for his big brother!

“Are you sure you want to bring a black cat to a funeral?” the weak Bloody Mary reminded Sloth.

“You can become a white one,” Sloth suggested.

“I am a heavily injured personnel, I can’t even fight a kid!” Bloody Mary grumbled.

“No, your existence alone is something that’s noteworthy. Believe me, you are stronger than you think,” said Sloth as he carried cat Bloody Mary.

Right away, a bad feeling rose from the bottom of Bloody Mary’s heart.

“Hey hey hey hey, what are you doing? What are you trying to do?” Bloody Mary squealed.

“Like big brother, I don’t like to stay on the passive and play defense. We must take the initiative to attack!”

Right after Sloth finished, he raised cat Bloody Mary high over his head and threw the cat powerfully at the coffin, as if he was throwing a baseball.

FUNG!

The irresistible force sent cat Bloody Mary across the air, a sharp air whistle sounding in its cat ears. By relying on its new feline instinct, it landed steadily with its paws… on the coffin.

Then…

The Demon Hunters who were around the coffin landed their fierce gaze on Bloody Mary in its black cat form.

Bloody Mary instantly felt numb on its cat head, but the more unsettling thing was it could feel a very small buzz coming out from the coffin underneath its paws.

The buzz then grew stronger, as if…

“RUN!”

Shouting loudly, Bloody Mary jumped high into the air.

Right after cat Bloody Mary jumped up into the air, the coffin that its paws had just touched exploded.

BOOM!