The Devil’s Cage

Carrying the body over his shoulder, the figure stood in front of Arwena Algo Zelgar’s grave.

His breathing quickened when he saw the grave.

As the figure walked around the gravestone, he somehow triggered some switch, causing the seamless ground to open up and reveal a dark entrance.

There were stairs leading underground. The figure was undoubtedly familiar with the place, and without any kind of lighting, the figure walked down with Wilberst’s body.

After the figure entered, the gravestone returned to normal.

Time flew again.

15 minutes later, another figure that had been waiting in the area appeared.

The new figure carefully approached the gravestone and triggered the switch in a similar skilled way and continued to descend the steps.

…

At the end of the dark and narrow corridor stood a door forged by iron.

The black figure with Wilberst’s body placed his hand on the LCD monitor beside the door.

Dik!

Dik Dik!

After some beeping noise, the door in front slowly opened, but at the same time, a composite female voice sounded.

“Welcome, Sir Syro Derl.”

The voice echoed throughout the hall behind the door, and white light shone on that figure’s face. In that particular moment, the scholarly aura was absent, and all the man had was coldness.

The sheer coldness from the man could send chills down one’s spine, just like the instinctive fear felt when there’s a venomous snake beside your feet; it was disgust mixed with horror. The man’s coldness, however, was much more real and natural.

At least the man, Syro Derl, felt comfortable.

He was fed up with wearing that hypocritical mask in front of the public.

He was only his true self at this moment—blood-thirsty and ruthless.

He was like that from the start, otherwise, he wouldn’t have joined this life-altering experiment.

Thinking about how he was one step away from truly completing his plan, Syro Derl couldn’t help but grin widely, sticking out his tongue and wiping his slightly dry lips.

Syro Derl then strode into the hall.

The hall was very tidy and neat: the tables, chairs, documents were all arranged in an orderly fashion. Also arranged orderly were many five meters tall glass cylinder containers.

Inside the big containers was some kind of transparent, gooey liquid and… bodies.

That’s right, bodies!

There were human bodies, Blood Kins, and Ghouls, but the containers mostly held Ghouls.

The Ghouls kept in the cylinder containers were less ferocious and scary than those that roamed the night, and the unconscious Ghouls looked dull and reeked badly.

Even while submerged in the gooey liquid, the vomiting stench flowed out endlessly.

But Syro Derl didn’t mind at all.

The mayor even looked like he was enjoying the scene as he walked past the containers like he was admiring his masterpiece with a solemn and intoxicating manner.

When he reached the end of the big hall, there was a slightly bigger container with a lot of thick wires connected to its front panel; the mayor’s intoxication reached its peak at that moment.

He placed Wilberst’s body inside and took off his clothes.

“Soon! Soon I will acquire immortality. I’ve been waiting for this day for far too long.’

The mayor then took a deep breath.

Then, he too went into the container.

The container shut behind him after he got in. The transparent gooey liquid then started to fill the interior, the mayor and Wilberst’s body inside.

Syro Derl, who should have been suffocating from the liquid, fell into slumber instead. His breaths became longer and he looked like he was at peace.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

…

30 seconds had passed, and a figure walked out from the shadow. The figure smiled coldly at Syro Derl inside the glass container.

“You are really full of yourself,” the figure said slowly.

Light was shed over the glass container, reflecting on the figure’s face.

The figure looked like a common man, but was extremely pale. His eyes were sharp and would leave an impression on first glance.

The man wasn’t in a hurry to destroy Syro Derl’s experiment, or rather…

He knew Syro Derl’s experiment would not succeed.

After all, he had been the one to kill Wilberst, and he had left a little ‘something’ in the body.

Naturally, the little ‘something’ was inserted to specifically target Syro Derl.

“You know everything you’ve done is made known to his lord? The lord didn’t stop you because you are still useful, somehow. He wanted you to lead the way to…”

“The lord you are saying, is it Cook?”

The man was interrupted, and Syro Derl, who was supposed to be in slumber, suddenly opened his eyes and glared at the figure outside.

The man was obviously shocked and faltered out of instinct, but quickly stopped his shameful actions after he reacted to the situation.

He knew some insider intel before he arrived, so he knew what kind of state Syro Derl was in. Maybe during normal conditions, he may not be Syro Derl’s match, but now?

Syro Derl had no way to fight back!

A despicable sense of banter rose in the man’s heart, and he showed an evil smile as he looked at Syro Derl with an interesting gaze.

“What do you think?” the man asked back.

“Of course now. Although Cook has quite the power in Eiders, he shouldn’t know about all these things. Besides, he should be quite busy trying to escape from the city.”

Syro Derl spoke slowly despite the gooey liquid that filled his mouth.

“En. That fat bastard is indeed running away. And before he ran, he’d even played tricks. He thought he could escape, but in the end? His end had been determined long ago, just like yours.”

The man outside the container curled his lips further, the evil smile turning into a vicious one.

“Determined long ago? No, no, no. You, as Cook’s shadow, didn’t gain his trust from the very beginning, and he’d even played you at the end. So did you think I wouldn’t take precautions when I entered this container?” Syro Derl smiled.

The man in the shadow jolted; he sized up his surroundings out of instinct. When he didn’t notice anything weird, he laughed coldly.

“Trying to bluff me? I thought I could let you live longer, but you’ve pissed me off. So, now d–”

Before ‘die’ could escape the man’s mouth, he stopped abruptly.

A laser beam fired out from the wall and pierced the man in the shadows, who had thought he had control over everything.

Puk!

The charred body fell to the ground.

Syro Derl looked at the dead body. His eyes showed contempt but were soon replaced by astonishment.

Footsteps sounded and a fat figure appeared in the hall.

It was… Cook.