The Devil’s Cage

Warm light showered over Kieran’s body before he could react.

While bathing under the light, the broken equipment on his body recovered rapidly.

“[Great Steady Repair Scroll] can repair multiple pieces of equipment at once. Don’t reject, as this is what you deserve. As long as you can help me clear the Title Dungeon, I’ll take care of your losses, including your equipment. This is the promise we made in the beginning,” Wu said with a smile.

Kieran kept quiet.

There was indeed a line in the contract they signed.

It was a fact, and he couldn’t argue. But some things must be made clear.

“I am me—not him, not someone else. Just me,” Kieran said in an emphasized tone.

“Y-You knew?”

Wu was shocked; she was like a little girl whose deepest secret had been discovered. Her words even came out in stutters.

“Do you think I am stupid?” Kieran asked.

Right, Kieran wasn’t stupid.

After so many abnormal behaviours, guesses and speculations rose within Kieran’s heart.

Given the circumstances, the change in attitude became reasonable as well.

Wu suddenly understood why Kieran treated her in such a bad way.

But…

Wu looked at Kieran. The image that came afloat in her mind was still of Crow.

‘Do you really have to go?’

‘En.’

‘What if you don’t come back? Can’t I go with you?’

‘No.’

‘Why?’

‘Because if you are here, I have the confidence to come back, to see you.’

…

‘Liar!’

‘You big fat liar!’

‘I’ve been waiting for you, but you never came back!’

‘Liar!’

Her eyes were dark as the rain poured down and drenched her in seconds, but she felt nothing as she knelt blankly in front of that grave.

‘You didn’t come back.’

‘I will go and find you then. Wait for me.’

…..

When she regained her consciousness, the light was blinding to her eyes.

She didn’t die; it wasn’t what she sought after.

‘Don’t stop me.’

Before her were two of his friends and also her friends. He had died for one of them, so she should have hated the bastard with the cigar.

But when she saw how distraught he was and how he blamed himself, she gave up.

But she didn’t give up on her hatred. She knew that for this cigar bastard, staying alive would be the worst kind of suffering for him.

She faltered. She wanted to return to his side, but she was stopped.

Her friend, a lady, set her back on the bed.

‘You know you can’t stop me.’

‘En. Stopping you is too hard.’

Her friend leaned against the wall and kicked that cigar bastard, forcing him to kneel before her.

‘What’s the use?’ she mocked as she watched the scene.

‘I don’t know if it is useful or not, but he needed it. Every single one of you wants to seek death. I really can’t take care of all of you.’

Her friend pointed at the cigar bastard.

‘I thought we were supposed to be friends.’

As though she felt the betrayal from her friend, her eyes became cold.

‘Yes. We have always been friends. So I’m telling you this—people can’t come back from the dead, this is what our education taught us, but what if there is something that is beyond our knowledge?’ her friend said calmly.

‘What do you mean?’ She jolted.

‘I’ve found something interesting. Maybe in that place, you can find a way to bring Crow back, or… you can see him in there. It may be possible,’ her friend said.

‘Really?’

She sounded doubtful, but her heart was almost certain.

She knew her friend wasn’t the type of person who bragged or boasted, and because of that, she understood the meaning hidden in her friend’s words.

It made her eager; it gave her hope.

‘Rest. You need a good rest before you can start. That place isn’t that safe. If you don’t have the abilities to protect yourself, I won’t let you go in there,’ her friend reminded her.

This time, she chose to comply because it was the way to finding and seeing Crow.

Then, she entered the big city.

She used her own means to bring herself closer to the finding Crow, then…

She found him in a very unexpected way, she found Crow.

The person didn’t share the same thought, but so what?

Everything was proceeding for the better, wasn’t it?

Just like this particular moment.

The conversation she was having with Kieran, she thought she would only hear it in her dreams, but now, it was happening before her eyes.

In order to secure happiness, why not compromise a little?

“En, I get it. You are 2567, not someone else,” Wu nodded and said.

Kieran frowned a little at Wu’s quick, easy acceptance.

His instinct told him that Wu wasn’t a person who would give up that easily or change her mind once it was set, but he couldn’t probe deeper.

He didn’t have the position or the rights to do so, or rather, Kieran didn’t want his instinct to drag him into the whirlpool of Wu’s thoughts.

He had gotten out in a hard way; it would be best for him not to return.

“Can you tell me what exactly this place is? Or.. what that is?”

Kieran pointed at the cone that he slashed in half.

“That? Something that wants to be God. It gave up its original body and combined its consciousness with science. A Fake V Rank existence,” Wu said slowly while looking at the broken cone on the ground.

“A Fake V Rank existence?” Kieran raised a brow.

Based on the abilities the cone displayed, it wasn’t something a Fake V rank could easily achieve.

“It, of course, is a special one. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have reached this level. However, its speciality blinded it to the point that it couldn’t see what was real. Firearms rose to be the mainstream in this dungeon world, but the mystical realm hadn’t faded. It thought that both coexisting together was ridiculous, outrageous talk, as the coexistence could stop it from becoming God. So it tried its best to eradicate the former, which is science. It wanted to become the only light in the darkness. It wanted the people to treat it as the only belief. Thus, giving birth to Erbus. K,” Wu explained.

“Giving birth? Are you saying…?” Kieran squinted his eyes as if he had thought of something.

“Yes. Just like fear, the Blood Kins, Werewolves and Ghouls here—everything monstrous—was created by this cone. It created all of them based on what it had experienced in the past and what it remembered. But it still forgot one thing.

“It isn’t the one that remembers or experiences. Even if it has similar powers, similarity doesn’t represent all, just like how there cannot be two pieces of leaves with the same pattern. Extremely similar powers will eventually end up as nothing but a reflection of the moon in water, an illusion.”

Wu then looked at Kieran, or rather, she looked at the medallion hidden in his clothes, [Lionheart].