The Devil’s Cage

Herasu was shaken, the danger he sensed making him instinctively step away, but Pride was faster.

Pride grabbed Herasu’s ankle and…

Fuaaa!

The blazing Devil Flame with its unique roar flew in from outside the temple, crashing into Herasu.

Kaboom!

Fiery waves exploded and scorching heat rumbled.

The temple wasn’t that big to start with, so the whole place fell into a sea of fire in an instant, as if a flaming devil was wreaking havoc.

Dak Dak Dak.

Amid the loud and strong footsteps, a figure that almost merged with the night walked along the wall that Herasu had crashed slowly.

The moment the dark figure stepped into the sea of fire, the fire paused for a moment before flying up to the sky.

The Devil Force in Kieran’s heart was restless, rumbling tirelessly, as it was eager to tear its foe into pieces.

Unlike the other Origin Force, this one was of the devil’s unique hobby but with Kieran’s stern willpower on top, the devil calmed down and ceased its eagerness.

Similar to how it knew its hobby, it knew its position well enough too.

A conflict between its hobby and position?

Non-existent.

Kieran reached out and pulled Pride up, not really helping the cardinal sin up though, because he knew had he done so, Pride would have turned him down.

Pride’s arrogance would tone down a bit before Kieran, but that didn’t mean Kieran could do whatever he liked, without the slightest consideration.

“I’ll leave it to you,” said Pride, vanishing into the fire.

Even after dying, Pride could be reborn in Kieran’s heart, but if he was an undead, would he be willing to experience truth death?

Pride wasn’t the other eccentric demon, who viewed death as a ferocious beast, yet got entangled by it.

Fuaa!

A second after Pride vanished, a ball of Devil Flame appeared in Kieran’s left hand and was smashed on the ground at his feet.

Kakrooom!

An explosion went off. Herasu, who was crying in agony in the flames, was completely killed off by the second blast, all signs of life fading away from the charred body, but Kieran wasn’t going to stop there.

Balls of Devil Flame fired out like machine gun bullets, crashing into Herasu repeatedly. The furious firing finally stopped when Herasu was nothing but cinders.

Kieran then turned around and looked at the statue towering over the sea of flames. Despite being surrounded by ferocious flames, the statue looked as delicate as ever.

“Very smart of you, as expected of an assassin. Can you tell me how you found out? I thought I silenced all of my presence and aura.”

The statue of Krecko suddenly spoke like a real person, with moving lips, its face showing confusion and curiosity.

Kieran didn’t answer, looking at the statue of the Hunter beside Krecko’s instead.

After that many blasts of Devil Flame, the Hunter’s statue wasn’t just charred, it suffered many cracks on its surface.

On the other hand, Krecko’s statue was still clean, not even a single scratch seen on the surface.

“Hahahaha! I see! It’s my mistake.”

Loud laughter came from the statue’s mouth and at the next moment, with its continuous generous laughs, the statue walked down its altar.

Three steps later, the statue was in front of Kieran.

“Join me, what do you think? Don’t reject me out of impulse, think about it. Don’t forget, this is also a rare opportunity for you.”

The statue looked down at Kieran and voiced its offer.

“No thank you,” Kieran rejected in a straightforward manner.

“I say don’t reject out of impulse, think about it, give it some real thoughts. It’s rare for me to have my eyes on a mortal, you are actually the first. Perhaps you still don’t know who I am…”

“The God of Lightning.”

Kieran’s calm words interrupted the statue’s offer. The statue was shocked, before laughing out loud again, the laugher as generous and bold as before.

“You are really smart mortal! Tell me, what else do you know?” the statue asked with a smile.

“I also know your other two identities.” Kieran answered.

“Oh? Really? Which two?” The statue asked in an interested tone.

“The Devourer and Hero Algor,” Kieran’s calm voice spoke the answer that would shock anyone who heard it.

“Seems like what I’ve tried to hide 300 years ago had failed. I am certain that I erased everything, how did you discover it?”

The statue sighed, feeling depressed by the revelation, but also somewhat proud of its doings. It was reacting like a child whose little mischievous deeds had been exposed, the questions that came out from the statue after that sounding like a curious child also.

“As long as it existed, there would be traces left behind. Erase it, and more traces would pile up.”

Of course Kieran wouldn’t tell the statue the truth.

When Sloth came back with the news, stating that Lightning Temple was looking strong on the outside but empty on the inside, and there was not a single monster lurking around the temple, Kieran had felt weird.

Who would have spent that much effort in protecting Lightning Temple when Naveya City had fallen?

That’s right, protecting!

Based on what Sloth had described, other than protection, Kieran couldn’t think of anything else.

Other than the God of Lightning himself, who else had the most suspicions?

None! Only the God himself would protect his own temple and only he had the power to do so.

At first, Kieran suspected that the God of Lightning had teamed up with the Devourer to bring destruction to Naveya City. However, after Bloody Mary discovered the Devourer’s empty vessel, Kieran discarded his initial speculations.

How could the Devourer work with the God of Lightning if that gigantic snake had only been an empty vessel?

Even though the Devourer had power beyond imagination, one wouldn’t want to work with an empty vessel.

Therefore, there must be someone who controlled this vessel to bring out its destructive power.

So, the million dollar question was, who controlled the Devourer’s vessel?

After connecting the news from Sloth to the Devourer’s empty vessel, Kieran thought of someone who should have appeared on the battlefield during the destruction of the city but was a no-show throughout the battle: the God of Lightning!

The God of Lightning and the Devourer were one!

Kieran was quite shaken when he came up with the theory, but starting off from there, everything made sense and connected smoothly.

300 years ago, Hero Algor saved Naveya City from the Devourer, but in the end, the Hero himself hadn’t ascend to godship. Instead, his followers all became the New Gods.

It was quite unbelievable, frankly speaking.

The conspiracy theories hadn’t stopped for almost three centuries and Kieran was one of the conspiracy theorists.

He once believed Hero Algor was poisoned, thus failing to ascend to godship, but after the theory of God of Lightning and the Devourer were one, Kieran didn’t think that way anymore.

Regardless of how powerful Hero Algor was, he would be no match for the God of Lightning, or rather, if Hero Algor was really that powerful, the God of Lightning would have ceased to exist.

Ultimately, the God of Lightning lived on, as did the Devourer, but Hero Algor disappeared.

If God of Lightning did kill Hero Algor, Kieran didn’t think the God of Lightning would be so generous to allow Hero Algor’s followers to ascend to godship, sparing their lives was already the least he could do.

Allowing outsiders to sleep in his own bed?

Allowing his enemies to grow to his own level?

Kieran didn’t assume God of Lightning, the most powerful God in Naveya, was someone as kind as that.

No matter how secretive a secret was, it would be discovered one day.

Once the Gods of Naveya realized the God of Lightning and the Devourer were one, what would the Gods, who were once Hero Algor’s follower, do?

The answer was self-explanatory, even an idiot knowing the outcome.

Was the God of Lightning moved by Hero Algor’s noble personality, deciding to give up on slaughtering the hero’s followers?

Or maybe the hero’s followers were moved by how mighty the God of Lightning was, deciding to give up their revenge?

Stop joking, this isn’t some kind of fantasy novel.

Therefore, another theory came into Kieran’s mind: Hero Algor was also a role that God of Lightning played.

Only then it made sense why the God of Lightning spared the hero’s followers in the first place: they were one.

Of course, the followers were spared the truth, or rather, only a part of the truth was made known to them.

Think about how God of Lighting favoured Lady Wealth when she fought with Lady Thorn.

When Kieran fought Lady Wealth, the Goddess of Wealth became furious over Kieran’s words. After Kieran related her wrath to her past identity of Hero Algor’s lover, some things were made clear to him.

Of course, God of Lightning controlling the Devourer and playing the Hero himself wasn’t just for fun; he had a grand scheme in his mind.

What was it then?

The vanished Gods of Naveya had said it all; the God of Lightning was just ‘rearing livestock’.

According to the old book’s, Canberlanor, description of his own process of ascending to godship, plus the follow up questions, Kieran was sure the other Gods of Naveya shared a similar process. The Gods were much stronger than the God of Knowledge, but the roots were still the same.

Canberlanor was able to target scholars and minstrels to absorb ‘nutrients’. Had he been in his complete form, the ‘nutrients’, which were people’s emotions, would transform into a higher level of Power of Faith.

God of Lightning was also able to absorb the Power of Faith from his own believers.

It was a natural process when Naveya was just a little town, back in the days. However, as the population increased, and the little town would grew into a big city, the God of Lightning became unwilling and jealous, he needed more, if not all, of the Power of Faith.

He was the one and only God of Lightning, the strongest of them all!

His strength was undeniable but he wasn’t able to get all the Power of Faith from the city.

Therefore, a new option came into his mind: ‘devour’ all the faith.

Kieran didn’t know how the Devourer came to be, but he knew because of the Devourer’s appearance, it urged the God of Lightning to pick suitable targets to participate in his little ‘hero play’. When all the targets were raised to a suitable and powerful level, the Devourer would come forth and devour them all.

Throughout the process, the God of Lightning arranged the ‘Followers’, betrayals, and many other elements.

Regardless of the former or latter, all was nothing but a garnish to his plan, meant to make his plan look even more natural.

What God of Lightning paid as cost in the process was something insignificant, incomparable to the gains that he would get in the end.

Spreading seeds and reaping harvest.

No doubt it was a happy process, but Kieran’s arrival messed up the rhythm.

Kieran’s unexpected slash at the Devourer back then cut the gigantic snake in half and heavily damaged the God of Lightning. Even after the God of Lightning devoured all the Gods of Naveya, it was only enough to repair the Devourer’s body; the heavy damage that he had suffered wasn’t completely healed up.

Otherwise, based on the grudge he had against Kieran, the God of Lightning wouldn’t have sent an outer ring member to Gordor, trying to help that lord to spread the plague in name. Actually, the goal was to lure Kieran over.

Once the plague spread in Gordor, Kieran who was situated at the nearby Arya Outpost, wouldn’t have stayed away from the outbreak.

As long as Kieran reached Gordor, no matter the end result, Canberlanor would appear before him, based on the old book’s personality.

Kieran would meet Canberlanor, and he would get access to the seemingly hidden information.

All the information he had gotten would ultimately lead him here: the hidden Hunter Temple in the southern forest, in front of the God of Lightning, who couldn’t recover fully, despite devouring all of the Gods of Naveya.

Kieran had become the new target for the God of Lightning.

So, he wouldn’t believe the God of Lightning would try to rope him in to his side.

The ‘join me’ that the God of Lightning had mentioned would probably mean ‘let him devour’; once Kieran was in his stomach, they’d be together for sure.

“The way you speak really strikes a chord in my memories. Seems like Vanessa taught you quite a lot, or did she give you enough tips to be cautious against me? But do you know why she didn’t expose me in the first place?”

The statue showed a ridiculing smile.

“I’m not sure. Is she afraid?” Kieran simply answered.

“She was hesitant and scared, because I AM THE GOD OF LIGHTNING!”

As the statue roared, the walls around the statue crumbled instantly. Several bolts of lightning, as big as pythons and as bright as neon light, gushed in and surrounded the 5 meter tall statue, dancing around the electrical, blue body furiously. His blue body looked profound with the mythical blue particles running around and after he was surrounded by the lightning bolts, the God of Lightning looked even more furious and dangerous.

Tss Tsss Tsss!

Amid the loud electrical buzzes, the God of Lightning revealed his original look and clenched his fist. The buzzing got louder, like a giant hummingbird was flapping its electrical wings in the grand hall.

The God of Lightning looked down at Kieran and revealed a malicious, yet delighted smile.

“The time is just right. Yes, just right.”

Kieran replied the malicious smile with a grin of his own.

No doubt, the God of Lightning was stalling, but so was Kieran.

Otherwise, why would Kieran talk so much BS with the statue, even stepping into the temple, despite knowing it was a trap setup for him.

It was all because Kieran was buying time for… Gluttony!

The Devourer’s body was in the bottom of the ocean.

He didn’t know where the God of Lightning got the body or how to use it to his own benefit, but he knew another more effective way to deal with the body—eating it!