The Devil’s Cage

Inside an underground storeroom of a civilian house at the edge of the city, the son of the Grand Duke of Son, the only heir, Reinholt was found.

The heir was in very bad shape when found.

He didn’t just suffer multiple wounds on his body because of severe interrogations, the interrogator still used some spells to attack Reinholt mentally more than once.

However, the astonishing point was that when Reinholt was found, he was in a conscious condition.

He may look dispirited and withered but his mind was very clear.

“I’m sorry everyone but can you help me call the servants of my house?”

Reinholt looked up to the secret agents with torches with his bloody, messy face and said.

Without further hesitation, the secret agents contacted the Dawn mansion servants and even performed simple treatments for Reinholt.

Of course, many of the secret agents tried to ask what happened.

“I can’t tell you all what happened and I may seem like a dishonest man in front of my lifesavers but the situation that I am faced with forced me to do so, please forgive me.”

Reinholt said with a bitter smile.

Despite suffering heavy injuries and weakened breaths, Reinholt presented himself with astonishing manners together with his peaceful tone; the secret agents did not press the matter anymore.

None of them were idiots since they were selected as secret agents by various factions.

They knew what should they probe and what they shouldn’t.

All of them waited for help to arrive after that.

The servants from the mansion then arrived in a hurry and carried Reinholt away in a hurry as well.

It wasn’t until Reinholt was returned to the mansion and placed under heavy protection that the servants finally felt relief for a bit.

Still, the servants stood behind the middle-aged butler as they stared at the best doctor in the family.

“Lord Reinholt has a good body. Despite suffering multiple injuries that nearly killed him, given his good constitution and my potions, he will be fully healed after a month or so.”

The doctor’s report made the butler and the servants release a sigh of relief.

Then, everything returned to normal under Reinholt’s command.

Despite the butler wanting to ask where the Grand Duke was, he was forced to give up the thought for now because Reinholt kept his mouth tightly shut.

“You have some rest first.”

The butler then left the room after giving his reminder.

Reinholt was then left alone in his room.

After making sure there wasn’t anyone around watching him, the only heir and son to the Grand Duke finally revealed a delighted smile.

He did it!

Although accidents happened and forced him to alter his original plans, he succeeded nevertheless!

Not only did he remove a powerful rival, but he also gained a perfect body in the process as well.

All that was left in his plan was… the “crown”!

It was actually Ansecord! He had taken over Reinholt’s body after the “fake death”!

Once the thought of the “crown” came into his mind, he couldn’t hold back his excitement.

Still, he didn’t forget his original plan.

Two tubes of high-level healing potions appeared in Reinholt’s palms and after drinking it down, the wounds that the doctor said required a month to heal completely were already healing at an exponential speed visible to his eyes.

Once again filled with energy, Reinholt clenched his fists out of habit.

“Although this body is far from my previous prime form, as long as I can acquire the “crown”, everything will be worth it! Moreover… this body has more potential that my original body could never reach!”

A dash of dazzling brilliance shone in Reinholt’s hand.

While feeling the power from the Dawn Family’s bloodline, Reinholt smile again.

Perhaps the power was weak at the moment, no one knew better than himself how far his body could grow given enough time.

“Until then… I’ll have everything!”

Reinholt raised both his arms high as if he had won the competition.

Almost 4 to 5 seconds later, Reinholt finally woke up from his fantasy.

The newly “ascended” heir to the Dawn Family picked up the dumbbell at the front of his bed and worked out without a second thought.

“My lord, you have… My lord! Why are you up? The doctor says you need to rest… the wounds…?”

The middle-aged butler returned to the room and was astonished by Reinholt’s action.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you but I need to do something without anyone’s notice. I hope you understand.”

Reinholt bowed at his butler with the same face, same temperament, plus the same humility and kind gesture, the butler did not doubt him for one second.

On the contrary, the butler who devoted his to the Dawn Family asked right away, “My lord, did you called for me to discuss anything of importance?”

“Please leave it to me, I assure you with my life that I will carry it out with my utmost effort!” The butler said as if he was making a vow.

“I knew you would say that, that’s why I want to ask this of you. Listen carefully.”

After some whispering, the butler left the room with a heavy expression.

Reinholt, however, smiled again as he saw the butler off. He touched his new face and felt the difference from his previous one.

“As expected, this identity has unspeakable benefits!”

Reinholt silently left the Dawn Mansion and headed straight to the imperial palace.

WIth Kieran’s threats ringing in everyone’s ears, the imperial household mobilized every available man for the search, thus the whole defense of the imperial palace was next to nothing and to Reinholt, it was like entering an unmanned palace; Extremus and the Burning Marquis as well.

Even if the defense of the palace were ten times the normal numbers, no one could stop those two from marching in.

The Burning Marquis was standing on the stairs out in the public, he didn’t seem to worry about getting noticed by others.

While Extremus merged himself with the shadows.

Both of them were in different positions yet their auras kept opposing each other.

Even after Reinholt joined the meeting, the opposing auras didn’t soften one bit.

“We are partners that work together, no need for such tension between us.”

Reinholt said with a smile when he caught the gazes from the two of them.

“You are my collaborator, he is not.”

The Burning Marquis took a disdainful glance at Extremus in the dark before saying.

He was never fond of snakes hiding in the dark waiting for their prey, even if Extremus displayed extremely powerful assassination skills during the attack on the Grand Duke.

Snakes were snakes, at most slightly being bigger than others.

Size made no difference from the Burning Marquis’ point of view, of course, it included Reinholt as well.

If he was still Ansecord with his previous abilities, the Burning Marquis might still be cautious against him but now?

The strength the new Reinholt displayed wasn’t worth the Burning Marquis’ time to take him seriously.

“You are my collaborator. He is my collaborator, so in a way, we are all collaborators. I assure you that he and I are the same, we are not after the crown.”

“I need a body so I ditched my original powers while he needed the real secret key to open the “grave” in Golden City. We all take what we need, isn’t it great?”

Reinholt was showing his “sincerity”.

The Burning Marquis coldly grunted and didn’t say anything after that.

If he didn’t have other thoughts for the grave in Golden City, he would have killed the disgusting snake.

Reinholt smiled again when he saw the Burning Marquis’ reaction.

He knew his words were working: Burning Marquis had taken the bait completely.

Without the restraints from the Grand Duke of Dawn, the Burning Marquis’ ambitions and desires had expanded to an unimaginable level.

But, wasn’t this Reinholt’s goal?

An arrogant, blinded opponent was better than a careful schemer hiding in the dark right?

In this current title dungeon, there were two opponents that really concerned Reinholt: the Grand Duke of Dawn and the Burning Marquis.

If it wasn’t for both of them, Reinholt would have completed his plan and gotten the “crown”.

Yet in another sense, without the both of them, it would not be Reinholt or “Ansecord”, a small pawn’s turn to enter the title dungeon.

Who knew how many of Broker’s men were eyeing this title dungeon?

“But you wouldn’t have thought that I was capable of inciting the Burning Marquis to attack the Grand Duke of Dawn right? You thought you were the smartest right? How could an arrogant person like you understand how a small character like me thinks? You’ll never know the rage and despair of a suppressed soul like me and the joy of being reborn once the restraints are lifted!”

“Your mistake, Broker! Wait for me! I’ll get back to you, I’ll take everything from you and you will feel the despair that I felt from the very beginning!”

Reinholt’s heart was thinking of all the plans he had for Broker yet the smile on his face was getting more sincere.

He even joked around with the Burning Marquis.

“Lord Marquis, please follow me. I have to thank your eldest son though, for letting us walk in the palace like this out in the public. Otherwise, we would have to spend more effort to reach the old king’s chamber.”

“My son is Starbeck. 2567 has been exiled from the family,” Burning Marquis emphasized.

“Of course. Exiled it is. Even if he acquired the acknowledgment from Burning Dawn and become the heir, what is it to you? Insignificant! Not worth a bit of your time!”

Reinholt was half respectful, half serious as he spoke to the Marquis.

From Reinholt’s point of view, Kieran was really nothing.

He might possess decent strength or be extremely lucky which while causing some trouble in the process but in the end, he would surely chase after the most obvious bait that Reinholt had arranged for him.

A bait like Darde the Titan, a powerhouse among the Supernovas, no one would have doubted his value, plus the rule of the “killing bonus” of the title dungeon, not a single player would give up on that kind of reward without knowing the truth, let alone the greedy 2567.

Reinholt got more detailed information from Extremus, thus he laid this trap specifically targeted at Kieran which would divert his attention.

Now, Reinholt’s only rival was… Extremus only.

He didn’t look at his rival, he didn’t even show killing intent in his heart.

Reinholt knew perfectly well where Extremus came from, so he had to maintain his harmless manner by leading the way seriously.

The three of them smoothly arrived at the chamber of Saint Cyanda the XI or one could say, outside the chamber palace.

From the late V king to the current XI, throughout a hundred years, the chamber palace of Saint Cyanda never changed.

Neither was it moved or renovated, even if the building was damaged, it was minimally repaired.

It was the royal decree from the late V king: any extravagant and wasteful spending was useless and would be condemned.

Any descendants of the Saint Cyanda Imperial household would have to follow the simple and plain tradition. Houses weren’t allowed to be rebuilt or repaired unless they collapsed, anyone who did not follow the tradition, even if it was the current king, would lose their rightful position and be replaced by other.

The royal decree left Saint Cyanda palace in a very vintage and unsophisticated state.

Technically speaking, the palace was old and broken but of course, it was the palace only.

From the VII king, the other palaces had been acknowledged as the new tradition of Saint Cyanda.

“I guess the V would not have seen this a hundred years ago. After his death, his heir didn’t just disobey his will, even Burning Dawn was broken to pieces.”

Reinholt looked at the mottled doors of the chamber palace. He sighed in a similar sense as he pushed the door opened.

Similar to the mottled doors, the plain and minimalistic features were passed down from a hundred years ago as well.

Especially the bed that the king slept every day, there were countless marks of repairs and because of that, it had completely lost the grand and magnificent look of the past; even commoner bedrooms might look better.

“Hurry up!”

The Burning Marquis rushed Reinholt who was sizing up the new surroundings.

“Right away.”

He went up to the bed and lifted it up, hence revealing a stone flooring.

Reinholt then looked at Extremus.

Without making a sound, Extremus threw out a body: the Grand Duke of Dawn.

Behind the body has an obvious dagger wound but the fatal one was on the chest.

The Grand Duke’s heart was crushed and the blood in his body was vaporized but surprisingly, the Grand Duke’s skin, flesh, and bone did not receive any damage.

The Grand Duke’s eyes were rounded and widened, his face enraged together with inconceivable expression. Reinholt ignored the horrible expression of his “father”, he moved the body over to the stone flooring and took out a dagger to cut his palm open.

Blood fell off his palm along with the cut, it was dripped all over the Grand Duke’s body and the floor.

As the blood flowed, it didn’t follow the laws of gravity and flowed away but an invisible energy restrained the blood and drew a perfect circle on the floor.

“The same bloodline has no heart of compassion.”

“Once an ally yet the betrayal cuts deep into the bones.”

“Dagger that hides in the shadow, blazing flames that burn the blood.”

“The body will die and the soul will roar but…

“Everything is useless.”

“The heir will not return! Never return!”

A vicious chant came from Reinholt.

Inside the blood circle, mystical runes started to appear one after another following the vicious chants.

At the same time, someone else followed as well.

[Player Darde has been eliminated by Player 2567!]

[Player Darde has died!]

Everything was just like how he expected.

The precise notifications made Reinholt’s voice more lively.

More and more runes appeared on the floor after that and when the Grand Duke’s body started to melt, a quake came from underground.

“Done!”

Reinholt said.

Extremus, on the other hand, had already jumped onto the Burning Marquis while Reinholt followed.

The Burning Marquis laughed coldly at the two of them.

Then…

A dagger pierced Extremus’ heart!