The Devil’s Cage

The setups that followed were more tightly linked than he thought.

After Kieran picked up on the soft noise, he increased the danger level of Borl’s rival.

He wasn’t in a hurry to make a move though, he wasn’t alone anymore.

As for Borl?

He did not notice the soft noise. It was not that his perception wasn’t sharp enough but whoever was on their tail blended all the noise into the moving wagon. The noise of the wheels rolling on the ground, the clanks from the spoils at the roof of the carriage, everything was meticulously calculated.

Given the circumstances, most people could never notice the uninvited assassin, hence fueling the assassin’s confidence.

The assassin squinted his eyes at the bodyguard, Aschenkano, his face showing disdain.

Nothing but a dumb big fella, he had at least 10 ways to kill Aschenkano.

The targets in the carriage? He had more than a hundred ways!

A son of a declined businessman who accidentally got rich because of some lousy tricks, yet he didn’t know how to cover his trails and did exactly the opposite by publicly getting himself a noble status—it was suicide!

Plus that helper that came by, what a pity!

He might not even know how he would die, right?

Like a crocodile shedding tears, the assassin showed compassion in his eyes as he took a little box from his pocket.

There were many reasons why he stood out from the many competitors, and other than his specialty in hiding and going undercover, this little box that was passed down from generation to generation in his family was the most crucial part of it all.

“Let the evil spirits devour you!”

The assassin opened the box and muttered in his heart.

Ghosts sprung out from the little box, one after another.

The dark sky became darker.

When the ghosts came in contact with the wicked presence, they swiftly grew stronger.

The temperature started to plummet.

Even with the heater inside the carriage, it failed to counter the cold outside.

The wagon stopped the next moment.

Borl wasn’t an idiot, noticing something was wrong the very first moment.

“Aschenkano!”

Borl knocked at the wooden window behind him but he got no reply from his bodyguard. He grabbed his magic musket and looked at Kieran with a questioning gaze.

“Let’s go down and have a look,” Kieran said calmly.

The door of the carriage was pushed open, a cold wind blowing towards Borl’s face and the coldness sending chills down his bones—his body shivering uncontrollably.

When he saw there were a dozen ghostly figures around the wagon, his face turned sour.

“Evil spirits!”

1

Borl’s heart skipped a beat, his hand instinctively reaching out to the bottle of holy water that he spent a fortune on.

Evil spirits, a higher tier of common ghosts. Not only could it greatly affect the temperature in its surroundings, a slight touch from the evil beings could cause frostbite and a longer touch would easily freeze a grown man.

However, the mentioned attacking methods required direct contact. The most fearsome part of an evil spirit was its shriek, which could affect people’s mental state.

It required no contact, all it required was the target to be within the proximity.

Anyone who heard the shriek would die!

Coupled with a telekinesis ability, dropping cupboards or beds from the air was deadly enough, but it still had invisibility and a phasing ability. In short, the evil spirit could easily catch people off guard.

One needed to know that the invisibility and phasing ability of an evil spirit might share similarities with a common ghost but theirs were at a higher level. They were no longer exposed by higher temperatures and their phasing speed was as fast as a gale.

The most troublesome thing was that evil spirits had their own consciousness.

That’s right!

Evil spirits were no longer a mindless soul like a common ghost. Not only did they have normal consciousness, one could be very cunning too, doing things like deceiving humans to prey on them were common predatory methods for them.

Therefore, even if one had a countering item, going up against an evil spirit would still prove difficult.

Now 10 at once?!

Borl’s heart beat like a war drum but it quickly calmed down because of Kieran.

What was the Flaming Devil famous for?

Everyone in the big city would say his flames and flame would be the bane of the evil spirits.

Evil spirits could resist common high temperatures but were certainly unable to fight the Devil Flame. So Borl heaved a breath of relief at the fact but promptly, he realized something wasn’t right.

The evil spirits that surrounded the wagon looked a little different than those evil spirits that he faced in the past.

They shared a similar presence, but they were not so… smart?

Doubts lingered in his heart but he worried about his bodyguard more. Borl then looked at Kieran, and after he realized there wasn’t any reaction from Kieran, he mustered up enough courage and shouted, “Aschenkano?!”

He got no obvious reply but he heard…snoring?

Loud snoring like drills working came from the wagoner’s seat.

He fell asleep?!

Borl jolted before he heaved a breath of relief.

He didn’t want anything to happen to his bodyguard. It wasn’t just because of how strong he was but also his absolute loyalty.

On the other hand, the assassin chuckled coldly when he saw Borl’s reaction.

He was concerned about his bodyguard despite the timing?

What a fool!

After the harsh comment, the assassin gave an order to his evil spirits.

“Tear them to smithereens!”

His order echoed among the evil spirits but none reacted to it, like they were translucent statues.

The assassin jolted, never having encountered this before.

“Tear them to smithereens!!”

Again, a new order was given but similar to the first time, the evil spirits did not react.

A bad feeling came afloat the assassin’s heart, lowering his body and looking into the carriage.

Then, he saw his target’s helper.

The helper was looking at him with a calm and cold gaze.

‘I’m exposed!’

The assassin’s heart turned cold in an instant, and after losing control of his evil spirits, the assassin didn’t care anymore and wanted to run away.

But before he could make a move, pain struck the back of his neck.

Pak!

The assassin fell off the carriage roof.

The startled Borl quickly turned his musket to the fallen assassin.

Bloody Mary, who hid in the shadows, tossed the stick away and clapped the dirt off its hands, looking at the unconscious assassin with a disdainful smile.

Due to the bits of memory from its early days, Bloody Mary looked down upon these kinds of unskilled assassins.

True strength is what one possessed, relying on items to achieve power was nothing but false power.

Even more so when the said item wasn’t even that powerful to begin with.

‘Trash!’ Bloody Mary commented on the assassin.

After it cleaned its hands, it carefully picked up the little box, jumping off the carriage roof and presenting it respectfully to Kieran with the utmost respect.

No matter how strong the item was, it wasn’t its decision to make, it was his boss’ loot.

Bloody Mary knew it by heart.

Kieran took the box from the Superior Demon.

[Name: Box of Trickery]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attack: Average]

[Defense: Strong]

[Attribute: Disguise Evil Spirit]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: Spirit C+]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: The one who created this box just wanted to play a harmless prank but it wasn’t funny at all when he died under the arrows of the Demon Hunter.]

…..

[Disguise Evil Spirit: Collect mindless ghosts in the box to transform them into controllable souls, disguised as evil spirits. The presence could reach a very similar level to an evil spirit but it only has one tenth of an evil spirit’s power. Able to disguise a soul once per week and unable to revert after disguise. The controller has to go through a Spirit C+ authentication during each control session, collected numbers cannot exceed 10 and when the maximum number is reached the controller has to undergo an extra B- Spirit authentication every week. Number of disguise evil spirit: 10]

…

“Exactly like its name!” Kieran commented.

Though Kieran did not throw it away, he kept it in his pocket instead..

Never underestimate any items, you never knew when you could use them.

Kieran believed the saying heavily, even more so when it could be exchanged for Points and Skill Points.

“Go do your work,” Kieran gave an order in his heart.

Bloody Mary bowed, nodded, and then vanished in front of Borl.

Borl looked envious at the vanished Superior Demon.

Flaming Devil having a powerful follower was not a secret in the big city, anyone could spend a little points to get their hands on the news but as for what kind of follower, no one knew.

‘Was that it?

A demon-like follower that can hide at will and mastered high-tier assassin techniques?’

Borl wondered in his heart.

His mind couldn’t help but paint a bigger picture: when the Flaming Devil is locked in a fierce fight with his foe, a dagger would come from the dark.

Borl shrunk his neck in fear, quickly shaking his head.

‘We are friends, we are on the same boat! He is on my side!’

Borl told himself.

“Sir Colin, what are we going to do next?” Borl did not act on his own.

“Wake your bodyguard,” answered Kieran.

Borl went over and woke his bodyguard right away.

“Why do I feel like I’ve drank Water of Life?”

Aschenkano shook his head after he opened his eyes to expel the dizziness, but when he saw the captured assassin on the ground, he finally knew what happened.

“I was knocked out by this bastard? Damn it!” Aschenkano grunted fiercely, wanting to stab the assassin with his halbert but was stopped by Borl.

“Wait! We still need to ask some questions,” said Borl.

Unlike how he woke up his bodyguard, Borl delivered a kick to the assassin’s stomach.

The pain woke the assassin right away.

After he realized he was tied up and his attempts at escaping were futile, the assassin clenched his teeth and said, “Kill me, I won’t say anything!”

“Oh, kill him then,” Kieran waved at Aschenkano.

The bodyguard was eager to carry out the order, raising his halbert high.

The assassin jolted at the sharp halbert raised up in the air.

‘What? You are going to kill me just because I say so? Shouldn’t you ask questions or interrogate me?’

Not only the assassin, even Borl was caught off guard.

‘So this is how the Flaming Devil works?’

Aschenkano on the other hand smiled ferociously and swung his halbert down.

“WAIT! I’ll talk!”

The assassin shouted loudly at the swinging halbert but Aschenkano went all out on that swing. It was impossible for him to hold the slash back, he couldn’t even if he wanted to, but Kieran slid in and held the halbert, stopping right before the assassin’s head.

Fuuuu!

The halbert was stopped but the gust of wind that followed made the assassin cry and snot. Looking at the sharp end of the halbert, which was less than a centimeter away from his head, his energy slipped away and he even peed his pants.

Kieran slightly stepped away.

“I’ll leave him to you,” Kieran told Borl before he went back to the carriage.

He was not interested in the upcoming confession because he knew the assassin didn’t know much.

The assassin was hired muscle, he was nothing but a self-righteous fool, and even if he managed to kill Borl, his death would follow shortly.

The one who put Aschenkano to sleep without his knowing would surely silently kill the assassin after the job.

Now?

Hope he could have a ‘good’ time.

Kieran added some coal into the heater, the temperature in the carriage rising. He took the teapot on the heater and poured a cup of tea for himself.

A sip of the sweet and sour tea made him squint his eyes.

He missed Starbeck.

1

Regardless of time and place, Starbeck was always able to surprise him.

He could use the simplest ingredients to cook the best of food.

If this tea was made by Starbeck… it would taste a few times better, right?

Kieran thought in his heart but he could not bring Starbeck with him to his world.

Even if he could, he wouldn’t.

Getting caught up in Broker’s schemes was not something good.

Kieran flattered himself that he had to be careful at all times. If he would bring Starbeck along, his little brother would surely distract him. So to Starbeck, returning to the big city was the safest way and Kieran already got solid confirmation from Bloody Mary.

“I should have gone back to the city and visited Starbeck for good food, yet I am stuck here searching for a way to break your schemes…Tsk, Broker, our debt grows deeper,” Kieran grinned coldly.

He decided to add an extra kick to Broker’s face when he had the chance to finally kill him.

As though they sensed Kieran’s killer intentions, the misty wicked presence in the area trembled, naturally wanting to affect Kieran’s emotion but it did not work, even after multiple attempts.

Kieran was like a monolith standing there without any emotions, even Gluttony, who was always hungry, went silent.

Many more times, the invisible to commoners misty wicked presence boiled like water, but it still couldn’t affect Kieran.

Kieran had been through the roars of the devil and the whisper of the cardinal sins, his spirit was like tempered steel, its tenacity far beyond what anyone could imagine.

Soon, after many futile attempts, the wicked mist returned to normal.

BUT!

Ten seconds later, an unknown gaze from the sky started to search the area.

The gaze glanced over Borl, Aschenkano, and the unconscious assassin, finally landing on Kieran, who was sitting in the carriage. The gaze examined Kieran carefully a few times and somehow determined he wasn’t the anomaly, then swiftly went away.

The gaze headed towards the direction where Bloody Mary had disappeared.

Kieran held his thoughts back, picking up his cup of tea as if he did not notice the gaze, and under the cover of his hand, he curled up his lips into a grin.