The Devil’s Cage

With thoughts in his mind, Kieran jumped mid-air while his eyes scanned over the entire floor. His lips curled into a grin.

Both in terms of structure and material, the floor was exactly the same as the ceiling, not even slightly different!

“So this is what’s happening! Regardless of the food eaten or the floor and ceiling, the only thing that changes is my own sight when I look up and down. If the ceiling and the floor are the same, that means when I lower my head, I am looking at the underground kitchen. If I raise my head up, am I looking at the top floor?”

Kieran touched his chin after he landed. After checking the First Seat lounge, he headed towards the highest floor of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria above ground had 7 storeys in total.

Other than the 1st to 4th floor public dining canteen, the 5th floor was reserved for the First Seat and the teacher’s independant lounge; the 6th floor belonged to the professors, although most of the time the professors weren’t present.

The 7th and highest visible floor was a banquet hall reserved for special occasions or activities.

With Eiderburgh’s authorization, Kieran reached the highest floor without hindrance.

The banquet hall looked extra spacious without any decoration, the stage, table, chairs and chandelier still there.

Kieran walked along the walls and carefully checked the entire hall.

Everything was fine!

Half an hour later, Kieran walked to the center of the banquet hall and slightly squinted his eyes.

“It’s not here? Which means… the roof?”

As he muttered softly, he jumped up and dished a kick at the ceiling.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take the stairs, but after his meticulous checking, he didn’t discover the stairs to the roof.

Perhaps there were some hidden mirrors in some secret corner, but Kieran didn’t think he should waste time in finding the proper entrance when he could reach his destination in a more ‘direct’ manner.

Knowledge is power but muscle is a power of a purer kind!

Bang!

Kabooom!

A heavy bang later, a giant hole was punched through the banquet hall ceiling. Big chunks of concrete fell off and many crooked iron rails were exposed.

An illusory figure, standing in front of the doorway to the roof, was astonished when it saw the hole.

It had plotted countless times and had never seen a person this boorish or rampant.

‘Should he get to me through many hardships and trials? What is this method? It’s almost like cheating!’

The illusory figure shook for minutes when it saw Kieran jumped up from the hole. When it calmed down, it still did not speak, instead forming pictures or scenes in its illusory body.

A strong, tall chef who wielded a long knife appeared in the scenes.

The chef didn’t just excel at cooking, he was adventurous and creative too. After hunting down beasts in the Mystic States, he started his own sect.

During a particular adventure, some accidents happened and it pitted him against a never before seen enemy: a monster whose power was unimaginable.

Despite utilizing and draining all of his power, the chef failed to triumph over said monster. All he could do was seal the monster in a dried up Mystic State and bound it down with blazing flames, hoping that one day it would kill the monster by wearing it down.

“Which means the place the monster was sealed inside is E Block cafeteria?” Kieran sized up the illusory figure before his eyes.

The figure had an old face, a rather unsophisticated attire with subtle elegance. Even though it was a phantom-like existence, it had an outstanding presence.

“Yes, young man. Are you willing to be his heir?” the illusory figure asked.

“Heir?” Kieran asked back.

“Yes, heir! Inherit his will and techniques, finish what he couldn’t.”

The figure nodded, raising its hand and summoning a phantasmal door before Kieran.

“Go in and you will inherit everything, you will…”

“No thank you,” Kieran shook his head directly.

The figure was stunned. Ever since it gained intellect, it had never seen a person quite like Kieran.

Most of the people who arrived before him through harsh trials were eager to go in when it summoned the door. Some hesitated but they eventually went in.

‘This guy however…’

A bad feeling arose but the illusory figure did not give up.

It had starved for quite a long time, it could barely hold itself together anymore.

“Do you know what you just rejected? Do you know what you will gain if you walk in? Do you know what it represents?”

The illusory figure blasted out its questions.

It hoped that it could still persuade Kieran to go in, like everyone else before him, but after the multiple questions, it noticed Kieran wasn’t moved at all. Instead, Kieran nodded seriously and answered all the questions.

“I’ve rejected danger! I’ll Gain stupidity and it represents sh*t!”

“You… how did you find out?” the illusory figure asked blankly, its ulterior motives exposed.

“Eiderburgh just told me about the myths in the cafeteria and such an anomaly appeared before me? With that kind of unusual yet obvious hint? I had to doubt it. Is someone pulling strings behind this? Because it’s too coincidental!” Kieran said slowly.

“Just because of that? Why didn’t you doubt the cafeteria beheader then? It appeared before you in such a timely manner, shouldn’t you have suspected the beheader?” the illusory figure asked out of confusion. It was quite confident with its plan.

Everything seemed so coincidental, one would unconsciously step into its trap and when greed got the best of them, its plan would be flawless.

“The beheader? It tasted quite okay I guess,” Kieran said.

“Taste? What did you do to the beheader?”

In order to numb its prey and keep its presence away, other than the initial contact with the beheader, it did not keep track of the beheader’s whereabouts, hence it had no idea what happened to the beheader in the cafeteria.

“I’ll let you guess,” Kieran finished with a smile.

Gluttony, who had been waiting in the dark for a long time, jumped out like a hungry tiger and pressed the illusory figure on the floor.

Without Kieran’s order, Gluttony did not eat the illusory figure, but he widened his mouth and his saliva fell on the figure.

Tss!

As the saliva fell on the illusory figure, sizzling noise sounded, as if Gluttony’s saliva was some corrosive acid; a chunk of the illusory figure vanished just like that.

“Aaaaargh! What monster is this! Get off me!”

The illusory figure screamed.

“He is not getting away from you anytime soon but if you tell me what the real secret of the cafeteria is, I’ll let you go in a more peaceful way.”

“How did you know I…” the illusory figure was shocked.

“Nothing or no one came out after so long, which means you are working alone and the beheader is just a little trick that you use to mess with people’s mind. Then, if there isn’t a mastermind behind the scene and you are working alone, there’s a high chance that you’ve heard of something and used it to your benefit. You went along with the flow instead of making up myths and arranging traps. You don’t have that kind of capability.”

Kieran looked down at the illusory figure and said everything very coldy.