The Devil’s Cage

The ever tempting presence lured Sloth to take a step out but Sloth clenched his teeth, holding it together.

“No! I can’t! If I continue on like this, I will fall into eternal darkness!”

Sloth clenched his teeth as hard as he could, he opened his eyes and even triggered some of the core energy in his body to counter his instinct, still, his efforts were like putting out a cartload of fire with cups of water.

At this particular moment, Sloth exclaimed about how powerful Pride was again because fighting against his own instinct was too difficult. It was like asking a tiger or a wolf to give up meat, turning them into vegetarians.

The fight would not just torture the body, it will torture the mental state as well.

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

Bursting sounds could be heard coming from Sloth.

Each sound of bursting represented the slight Origin Force in his body being ignited and following each burst, Sloth grew weaker.

Sloth kept on fighting his instinct until his body turned faint, a bitter smile was hung over his face.

“I still cannot see? Why the hell did I resist it? Isn’t it just better to follow one’s instinct? At least… still… alive…”

Doubts once against appeared in Sloth’s heart, together with the temptation outside, he was moved.

When Sloth finally lost it and took steps towards the origin of the temptation…

Dak, Dak, Dak, Dak.

Strong and powerful steps sounded in his ears; it was very familiar.

Kieran himself then appeared within Sloth’s line of sight.

“Is Mr. Ghost’s real body that powerful?”

Kieran raised a puzzled brow at Sloth who was fading away.

Kieran didn’t feel any breathtaking battle through Sloth’s view but as one of the Cardinal Sins Force, Kieran would not just give up on Sloth.

With a thought from his mind, Sloth vanished and returned to his special heart.

Vigorous Cardinal Sins Force was poured into Sloth’s core after his return.

The core energy that he lost before didn’t just get refilled in an instant, even his cells started to change in a subtle way.

While feeling the subtle changes, Sloth’s will was overfilled with joy. He even started to dance defying his own instinct and character, celebrating his new reborn self.

At the same time, he again defied his own character and sent feelings of gratitude to Kieran.

Hmph!

Pride coldly grunted in disdain. Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Wrath, and Envy were still sinking in depression.

“Huh?”

Kieran was slightly stunned when he sensed the feelings but when he wanted to continue getting a grasp on these feelings, what he felt was the wicked and sinful Cardinal Sins Force.

Kieran, however, didn’t think it was his own overthinking.

His near rank III Spirit would never cause him to have some extra delusional thought under normal circumstances; Kieran related it to the unusual behavior of Sloth.

“Did something I didn’t notice happened?”

Kieran thought silently and unconsciously raised his guard and attention towards Cardinal Sins Force.

Before thinking about the good, first, think about the bad.

It was Kieran’s habit that he developed after countless lessons. Despite reaching his current level, it was hard for him to change, or rather, he would never change.

Similar to how Kieran would be overjoyed when he saw a piece of unexpected loot.

A sculpture with a big face and two legs slowly floated out of Mr. Ghost’s body.

When he saw the weird looking statue and felt the familiar aura, Kieran had guessed in his mind already.

He woke up and picked the sculpture up; the information was displayed before him right away.

[Name: Mordin’s Seventh Sculpture]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: Epic]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: I]

[Attribute: 1: Shadow Trailing Steps; 2. Shadow Trailing Strike]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: It originates from Master Sculptor Mordin and it was his seventh masterpiece but Mordin’s will caused it to mutate in a weird way.]

…

[Shadow Trailing Steps: Able to perform short-range teleportation with shuttling through shadows. Able to teleport yourself or others but user would need Shadow Counter to pinpoint the location beforehand; Gains 2 Shadow Counter every day, able to store up to a maximum of 10. When the teleportation is used, consume 1 Shadow Counter. (Each teleportation of more than 30 kilometers distance consumes 1 Shadow Counter), Shadow Counter: 0]

[Shadow Trailing Strike: Consume 2 Shadow Counter to perform a Strong shadow attack on enemies within sight. Following the increase of Shadow Counter, attack level will increase as well (Highest attack rank is I and would consume 10 Shadow Counter). When Shadow Trailing Strike kills an enemy, replenish Shadow Counter based on target’s HP.]

……

Although he had guesses about it, Kieran was still stunned when he truly saw [Mordin’s Seventh Sculpture].

First, he never thought Mr. Ghost would possess one of the sculptures.

Second, he never though Mordin’s sculpture would reach Epic Rarity.

More importantly, this was just the seventh sculpture and based on his information, Mordin has a total of 8 sculptures altogether.

“The third is Rare and the seventh is Epic. Based on the rarity ranking of the numbers, the first and the second should be the weakest, probably at Magic rank. The four, fifth and sixth, at least one of them is at Legendary and the eighth would be a higher rank item… what will happen if I collect all eight of the sculptures?”

Kieran couldn’t help but relate into more when he felt the distinguished ranking between the seventh and the third sculpture.

He was already interested in the sculptures and now, his interest was piqued to its highest.

However, Kieran didn’t forget what he should do at the moment.

After stuffing the seventh sculpture into his bag, Kieran started to search inch-by-inch in this secret base of Mr. Ghost.

How could a super criminal like Mr. Ghost have no collections in his base?

…

Just as Kieran was looting his spoils of wars, the news of Mr. Ghost’s defeat spread across Alkender City like the wind.

Some were shocked, some were skeptical, some were angry.

A gloomy sinister voice could be heard from a certain spot.

“Arrogant stupid idiot! Bringing his own demise on himself! The worst thing is that your death affected my plan! Your death will not be regretted, Mr. Ghost!”

The sinister voice sounded full of grudges and hate but right after that, the hatred turned into suspicion

“You are really shocking eh, 2567… How did you do it?”

The sinister voice got quieter and eventually was reduced down to nothing.

…

Meanwhile, in another spot, another raging voice got even louder.

“I warned him before! Asking him to be careful! Really an arrogant stupid idiot!”

Similar to the sinister voice, this raging voice was also commenting on Mr. Ghost.

Then, the raging voice was overflowing with killing intent.

“2567 eh? You are dead meat!”