The Devil’s Cage

At dawn, the rain started to ease up.

Many wagons had gathered in front of the police box outside the street of St. Paolo School.

Torti and Reed’s death spread like wildfire across the city before the day even got bright. It made the parents who sent their children to St. Paolo worried sick.

Especially when an explosion went off near St. Paolo at night, the parents couldn’t sit back anymore.

They rode their wagons to the school and hoped to take their children back home, even though Sister Moni repeatedly emphasized and guaranteed that the school was safe, it was useless.

The elderly sister couldn’t dissuade the persistent parents.

“You’re not helping?”

Standing in front of the small chapel, John saw the parents covering their kids as they went off in a hurry and he asked Kieran who was drawing something on the muddy ground beside him.

“Don’t ever try to dissuade a person that has their mind set on something, and this is a lot of people that have made up their minds, not a single person.” Kieran said without turning back to John.

Last night when the elderly sister voiced her request, wanting him to protect the students of the school, Kieran agreed to it without a second thought.

It was a convenient thing to do for Kieran, so there was nothing much to reject but the scene that bloomed in front of his eyes forced him to the back.

First, he didn’t have a corresponding identity.

Second, he was “dead”.

Third, and the most important point, he hoped the attackers could treat him as Guntherson!

The imbalanced information between both sides was enough to spare him quite the benefits by utilizing the element of surprise.

The thoughts that gushed out from his heart made his hand shake.

The circle that should have been round had bulged out instantly.

He failed again without question.

Before dawn, Kieran has learned the [Seal of Dawn] from Sister Moni.

However, the thing that surprised Kieran was at first when he saw the simple drawing that Sister Moni drew back at the morgue, the rising sun shining through the fields, river and mountains, it was actually part of the [Seal of Dawn], or more precisely the [Outer Seal].

Compared to the [Inner Seal] which required body control and looked like an ancient salutation, the [Outer Seal] was much harder.

Kieran mastered the former in single session but the latter, it would require him to work hard and practice.

After all, one couldn’t expect a guy to be all rounded, no matter how Kieran loved to read, it was just the understanding of words and a test of memory, none of those could aid him in becoming a good drawer.

“You are drawing a dog?” John who stood beside Kieran asked when he saw what Kieran was trying to draw with his finger on the muddy ground.

“It’s the rising sun!” Kieran emphasized.

“Why does it look like a dog opening its mouth?” John was baffled.

“You can shut up now since you don’t know anything about art! Or I don’t mind helping you!”

Kieran was upset at John’s obvious ridiculing words after a dozen consecutive failed drawings.

He knew why John was here: the incident at Wayne Manor and the explosion case that happened at the street nearby.

In order to make John leave sooner, Kieran briefly told him about what happened and John’s facial expression couldn’t help but turn heavy.

“You are saying the new Duke Wayne sent out killers before? And factions are gathering here because of the treasure of the Church of Dawn? And what, these so-called sorcerers? What the hell? Why are all these crazy things appearing left, right, and center?” The chief officer grunted angrily.

Uncontrollably, the chief officer hated what he heard yet helplessness rose from the bottom of his heart. However, he hadn’t lost his cool.

“What are we going to do?” John asked. He wasn’t stingy with his questions since he deeply knew the importance of the professionals.

“Wait! Wait for another moment for the mastermind to give himself away. Trust me, it won’t be long. Their greed will forever make them more anxious than us,” Kieran said as he handed a silver wine pot to John.

“I’ve quit wine long ago, if it’s a cigarette I won’t mind,” said John as he lit up a cigarette before Kieran and start spitting out clouds of smoke.

“This is not wine, it’s holy water! The holy water from the Church of Dawn that Sister Moni made, although it can’t deal with a big scene, it will be enough to deal with the situation similar to the one yesterday.”

Before Kieran finished explaining, the silver wine pot was snatched away by John.

“How do I use this?” John asked as he held the wine pot tightly like it was a precious treasure of some sort.

“Smear it on your metallic weapons, common bullets could work too but are less effective. The best way is to splash the holy water on the monsters. Trust me, it’s more useful that you can imagine,” Kieran simply said.

He was not stingy in praising the holy water though because the holy water from the Church of Dawn far surpassed [Holy Water VIII].

[Name: Holy Water (Church of Dawn)]

[Type: Potion]

[Rarity: Great]

[Attribute: Able to terrorize Low, Medium level spirits and negative energy beings in 1 minute. Any Low, Medium level spirit or negative energy being that touches it will suffer Lethal damage!]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Remark: This is the holy water made personally by the saintess of the Church of Dawn]

…

According to the traits of [Holy Water VIII], the Church of Dawn’s holy water would be at least V rank or higher.

More importantly, the crafting process of the Church of Dawn’s holy water wasn’t that complicated.

Kieran witnessed with his own eyes that Sister Moni made 3 bottlea of holy water of this level within half an hour.

Of course, the required materials were still rare and expensive.

John put away the silver wine pot carefully.

“About the box craftsman, the rubber estate, and the potion leads, I’ll continue the investigations on them… Maybe we might make some surprising discoveries!”

Even though Kieran stated his guesses about the murders being committed by the known attackers with the help of the Blood Hand Society, John didn’t want to give up that easily.

Kieran, however, would not stop him investigating.

“Be careful,” Kieran said.

“Don’t worry, I might have been worried before but now I am anxious to fight it out with those bastards!”

John tapped on the silver wine pot and the contents inside before leaving quickly.

Following John’s leave, Kieran devoted himself back into drawing the [Seal of Dawn, Outer Seal].

From morning until evening, other than the 3 essential meals, Kieran devoted his entire mind and soul into it without sleep.

When the drizzling rain turned into a downpour again, Kieran finally completed the [Seal of Dawn, Outer Seal] after failing almost 200 times.

Wuuung!

The moment the drawing on the ground was completed, it resonated with the Dawn Force inside Kieran’s body.

The faint light that appeared on the drawing expelled the darkness around it, even the drizzling couldn’t help but alter direction but what concerned Kieran most was the small chapel behind him.