The Devil’s Cage

The rebuilding of Golden City was much easier than expected.

Under Luzarc’s command, not only were the original slaves added to the rebuilding but the city’s original citizens and captives joined the process as well.

After the slaves and citizens were promised freedom, they joined the rebuilding voluntarily.

While the robbers, bandits, smugglers, slave traffickers formed a new group of slaves under the might of the sword.

Perhaps Burning Dawn’s elite riders weren’t that many, but deep inside the Golden City palace was an existence that people would fear and felt despair for.

One man against ten thousand, one man taking a city.

Such a legendary, mythical person was there in the palace. No matter how cunning a person was, one wouldn’t dare to act recklessly. Therefore the rebuilding of Golden City was quick.

A mere few hours later, the initial effects were visible already.

The biggest construction was centered around rebuilding the walls and archer towers that Kieran destroyed using his fiery blast.

Big pieces of shattered stone and mud were used to repair the seams on the walls and for the rest of the parts, including the rebuilding of the archer tower, they would need the help of some real construction workers and blacksmiths; it wasn’t possible within a short period of time.

So, the repair work consisted of the slaves and citizens focusing their attention within Golden City.

The parts of Golden City that required repairs weren’t that many yet not too few either.

Soon enough, the reconstruction group split up into smaller groups and started to get busy.

Luzarc who was standing on the walls was checking the seams.

After some simple repairs, Golden City walls was still far from what it used to be, an iron fortress, but it was able to withstand against a certain amount of sieging.

However, Luzarc wasn’t relieved at all. He was inspecting the repairs on the walls and at the same time arranging for his aide to send messages to Walloon and the main rider group that had fallen behind.

“Bring them to Golden City as soon as possible. I know that since we have his lordship here with us, those bastards dare not do anything but his lordship is not our nanny, he can’t just clean up the mess for us every time. Also, tell Walloon to rearrange the defense of the North base camp and the eleventh outpost station according to the defensive procedures. Remember, tell him not to be careless, we have only this chance. If we fail, Burning Dawn will be finished.”

Luzarc gave his order in a serious tone.

“Yes, my lord.” The aide saluted before he rushed out of Golden City with his horse.

The message Luzarc was sending was too important. It wasn’t a task for a common messenger and in the current group, other than Luzarc, only his aide was suitable for the task.

Seeing his aide off, Luzarc looked down beneath his feet toward the walls.

There were rows of pebbles of different sizes surrounding the area from the perspective of others may look like some child’s play but for one who knew Supreme Road and had a decent military background, the rows of pebbles were simple lines of defense.

Starting from Golden City, Burning Dawn’s North and South camp were acting as supports while being connected through the 11 outpost stations; it was almost a perfect defense line without any dead angles.

This line of defense was purposely set up against the direction of… Dawn City.

Luzarc was very clear about the imperial household of Saint Cyanda; he knew even more about the nobles of the capital.

The chief rider of Burning Dawn knew how Saint Cyanda imperial household would react when the news at Golden City arrived; he also knew how the nobles would react.

After all, the imperial household targeting Burning Dawn wasn’t anything new but lasted for a hundred years.

Those nobles that were eyeing the “wealth” of Burning Dawn were like cruel, greedy wolves and vultures, plundering again and again.

Now, with Golden City’s appearance, how would they stay put?

It was certain that they would send out some reward or transfer orders through official means.

Then…

The nobles and imperial household would divide the loot, enjoying the spoils of their dirty political tactics.

It happened every time but not this time because the true heir of Burning Dawn had arrived.

They had been waiting for their lord to return!

They had to change their ways in order to react to the situation. Therefore, war was going to break out.

The alliance army of the imperials and nobles would soon be marching on Supreme Road towards Golden City!

“Come on, come on you bastards! It’s time for you to pay the price!”

Luzarc muttered softly to himself. He then gave an order to the soldier beside him before he walked off the walls and headed towards the palace.

Inside the palace, all books or written notes that one could find were placed in the grand hall.

Kieran was sitting in the middle, going through book after book with extreme speed.

Such reading speed wasn’t a meticulous reading, it wasn’t even considered as going through the books; he was skimming for clues.

‘Grave’, ‘Treasure’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Legacy’.

These few words became the keywords that Kieran was searching for.

If he had a choice, he wouldn’t want to go with this particular method because he would miss out on a lot of useful information.

However, there were no other ways better than this for him right now.

Fortunately, among the book collection of Golden City, he found some extremely secretive recordings regarding ‘grave’ and Burning Dawn’s ‘secret’.

The book that had the recording of the ‘grave’ was an ancient, unsophisticated book that was made out of some animal skin; not goat, not cow, but something more tensile, something like… wolf skin.

Pro level [Mystical Knowledge] and Basic level [Research on Mythical Beings] gave Kieran some initial guesses but that was it. However, it was enough for him.

What he needed was the books to verify his own guesses and based on a special wolfskin book and the recordings in it, it might very well be true despite some of the recordings sounding a bit unbelievable.

…

Fenrir took down his crown and threw it away.

His eyes were merciful.

His expression was pained.

The sickness and famine that plagued the earth cost him his sleep.

He needed to eliminate all the sickness and pain.

He walked the path of iron bramble.

His blood flowed across the land.

His will carried out his very first wish, even if…

At the end of the road, it would be his grave.

…

The recordings sounded like a poem with casual writing but the crown and grave mentioned caught Kieran’s attention.

The Supreme God and Supreme Road.

These two were well-known legends in the current dungeon world and Kieran wasn’t a stranger to either but it was the first time he came across the crown and the grave.

If it was just a simple mention, Kieran would just spare some attention and not be captivated by it.

However, the other book that had the ‘secret’ Burning Dawn also mentioned a crown.

He knew he was getting close to a certain truth.

…

My army, Burning Dawn was victorious.

Every obstacle on Supreme Road must be swept away.

I have my crown but my lineage forbids me from ever getting close to it.

It saddens me.

Forced, I bring my crown to Dawn City, asking my good friend for help, hoping that he can tell me how I should use it.

1081. Late Winter.

…

This was from a piece of paper mixed in the pile of books.

Kieran wouldn’t have noticed it if he wasn’t paying attention and because he did, it made him more anxious.