The Devil’s Cage

After dawn, the sun rose high into the sky.

However, a rare rosy haze flew across the sky and blocked the sun.

Soon, the clouds got thicker and overlapped each other, causing the land to turn dark.

The darkened atmosphere made Forest City extra gloomy and depressing.

Forest City was considered a lively city but from this moment onwards starting from the temple in the middle of the city to the outskirts area, the people’s faces had an indescribable heaviness and worry.

Even the silly children were affected by the adult’s emotions causing them to be careful.

Especially those high standing big shots of the society, they were going into the temple with anxiety and were waiting for news.

Unlike Great Swamp who avoided the public eyes and laid low, the God of Forest City was much more high-profile.

He didn’t just build the temple in the middle of the city in order to receive people’s worship, the whole city was filled with “mysterious” power as well.

If the majority of the citizens in Flame City didn’t know the existence of fiends, then the majority of Forest City had somewhat heard of similar incidents.

But of course, believing it or not was a personal matter.

Huu!

Morden who came out from the car couldn’t help but take in a deep breath when he saw the ever dazzling temple and the bright lights around it.

He would do that each time he visited the temple because it didn’t just help him to ease his nervousness, it quickly calmed him down as well but today, it was different.

The news that he got through some secret channels couldn’t calm Morden down at all, whenever he thought about the contents, Morden’s anxiety grew heavier.

Tsk, Tsk Tsk!

Just as Morden was about to take his first step, a series of car tires screeching was heard behind him followed by car doors being opened.

A group of anxious and nervous people came out of the cars as well.

When Morden saw them, they saw Morden as well.

These people who usually had quite a decent relationship with Morden or the opposite didn’t have the mood for idle chat or arguments.

After a quick exchange of gazes, the group entered the temple.

These men who held unconventional status in Forest City entered the temple without further hindrance.

Inside, they saw many others who shared their status and obviously they weren’t the first to arrive.

The situation caused Morden’s anxiety to grow further.

He reached out to his tie and loosened it. The tie wasn’t that tight in the first place and following his pull, it was dragged open directly but Morden, despite being extremely cautious with his image during normal times, couldn’t care about that now.

He took a deep breath first before heading towards the center and forefront of the crowd.

An elder wearing a clean, handsome suit with a gentleman staff was standing there.

Despite the chair behind him, the elder stood straight with slightly squinted eyes. The elder also had an entirely different manner than the others around him, to the point that he was very eye-catching when he stood in front of the crowd.

So, when Morden went over to the elder, the crowd noticed it at first sight.

Then…

Everyone’s attention was captivated, they knew what Morden was trying to do because it was the exact thing they wanted to do but dared not to.

The difference in the status ranking had determined that the crowd had to be lower than the elder even though they could enter the inner temple.

Morden’s status, however, was different. Although his status was still quite far away from the elder, he was much higher than those in the crowd around him.

In simple words, the elder was of the first echelon and Morden was the second followed by the rest.

“Mr. Hermair, did you get any news?” Morden carefully asked with a softened voice.

Despite a soft voice, Morden was speaking in front of the temple’s hall and under the crowd’s attention, thus everyone heard it clearly.

“New? What news?”

Hermair asked without even widening his eyes. His speech was blurred as if he was sleep talking.

“The news from Flame City,” Morden continued in a soft voice.

“What news from Flame City?” Hermair continued asking.

Morden didn’t reply right away, instead, after an obvious jolt, he followed with a careful tone, saying “It’s about His Majesty’s defeat…”

PAK!

Before Morden could finish, he was interrupted by the gentleman staff in Hermair’s hand with a beating on his face.

Morden’s face was instantly swollen, even his teeth felt loose after the strike.

He covered his face and looked at Hermair with a puzzled gaze.

“What kind of joke is this?! How can His Majesty lose?!”

Hermair was shouting loudly as he widened his eyes, his face was infuriated and was utterly vicious.

Furthermore, he wasn’t done yet, he continued shouting each and every word out loud.

“His Majesty is a true God!”

“How can a mortal triumph over a God!”

“Some groundless rumors made you people lose your way!”

“You people are truly a disappointment to His Majesty!”

“Think about it, when His Majesty returns and see the faces of you people, how disappointed will he be?!”

“Or have you people forgotten His Majesty’s grace?”

“Or… have you people forgotten His Majesty’s might!?”

His strong and sonorous speech turned gloomy at the end.

Following his gloomy statement, everyone in the hall couldn’t help but shiver.

The God of Forest City wasn’t a kind God, he was feared by the people, not respected. Especially those who disappointed, they would suffer punishment from head to toe and once the punishment entered their minds, the crowd grew even more fearful.

“How could we forget His Majesty’s grace!?”

“His Majesty’s grace is branded in our hearts!”

“We will wait for His Majesty’s triumphant return!”

“Yeah!”

“His Majesty’s triumph is certain!”

“We have absolute confidence in His Majesty, unlike someone!”

“After enjoying the grace of His Majesty, yet his heart feels another way!”

…

After a series of praises, the words suddenly took a sharp turn.

The hostility that specifically targeted Morden was obvious.

The crowd in the hall were never united to begin with, most of the time they would set each other up, frame each other and celebrate another’s death.

Hermair was the veteran in all this and because of that, he was standing in the leader’s position amongst the crowd.

Hemair quite valued his current position, so anyone who dared threaten his position would be viciously exterminated, like Morden.

Hermair, of course, knew about the God of Forest City failing in battle, similar to his knowledge of how powerful a God was.

Therefore, he believed the God of Forest City would be fine and under such circumstances, Hermair didn’t mind doing something extra.

While watching the crowd attack Morden, Hermair laughed coldly in his heart.

“Lord Priest, please punish Morden!”

Hermair said loudly after he assumed the timing was right.

“Lord Priest, please punish Morden!”

“Lord Priest, please punish Morden!”

“Lord Priest, please punish Morden!”

…

Call after call came from the crowd but… no one answered.

The calls started from a sonorous, excited tone. They then gradually turned into doubts and the calls got weaker and weaker.

Hermair frowned. Ultimately, he mustered up enough courage and walked into the corridor of the front hall—it was the deepest part of the temple these men were allowed to reach.

The front hall allowed one to have a slight glimpse of the inner hall of the temple.

Hemair’s eyes squinted to see as far as he could into the inner call but he got nothing.

The inner hall was as brilliant and dazzling as usual and just as Hermair was at a loss for what to do next, a figure appeared.

The figure was in a priest robe and the moment it appeared, Hermair quickly bowed and saluted.

“Lord Priest,” Hermair said in a respectful tone.

However, the figure didn’t even care and walked past Hermair, running towards the outer main hall.

“Lord Priest, hold on! What happened?” Hermair was questioning loudly behind but the Lord Priest didn’t have the slightest intention to reply and he ran even faster.

Bang!

A gunshot sounded.

The priest that stepped out of the outer hall fell to the ground after being shot.

Gunshot, blood and a dead priest caused a clamor in the outer main hall, especially when a squadron of men rushed inside, Hermair dashed out and questioned the visitors.

“What are you people doing here?”

“Do you know what place is this?”

“You…”

Pak!

A loud slap landed on Hermair’s face, it didn’t just stop his words, it even sent him falling to the ground.

“This is the temple and we are here to take over it because it will soon welcome its new master—His Majesty the Bird of Death.”

The leader of the squadron glanced over the fallen Hermair before looking at the crowd.

His tone was explanatory yet it sounded like a declaration of sorts.