The Devil’s Cage

[Dandelion Pierce] flew out rapidly, and before its buzz even subsided from the air, a long fair palm grabbed the head.

Pum!

The headless body fell to the ground.

The eyes of the dying seemed frantic and persistent, yet the unconcealable dullness and blankness spread rapidly along with the presence of death.

The pair of eyes that shook hearts and struck fear turned morbid instantly.

They were no different from the other corpses’.

White light covered the headless body, which started to disintegrate, and even the head held by the fair palm turned into light particles.

They floated around as the figure who held the head walked forward. The light particles shed some light on the frosted ground and revealed the black figure.

On top of the layer of thick frost, the black figure walked forward slowly. His eyes were cold and bland, his steps firm and steady, as if he was the owner that came from the Kingdom of Shadows. The owner of the Kingdom of Shadow inspected his territory as he walked until… he stepped into another kingdom—the Kingdom of Ice.

The street was completely turned into an icy world.

Joyce, who stood at his spot, was releasing frost energy that surpassed any common player’s knowledge—he froze the entire street.

Freezing a cup was easy for players who owned items that possessed Frost ability; slightly stronger Frost abilities would enable the player to freeze a table, but trying to freeze an entire house wouldn’t be that easy anymore.

Frost wasn’t fire, fire was invasive.

Other than the high temperature of fire, the most obvious trait of fire was its ability to spread.

It spread by burning.

In simpler words, as long as there was enough fuel, the fire could spread uncontrollably until everything was burned to cinders.

But frost was different.

In order to keep things frozen, a low temperature must be constantly maintained.

The ability to maintain a constant temperature wasn’t something common players could achieve, and not even a high-ranking one could achieve it with ease, but Joyce was able to do it here while seeming so relaxed.

More importantly, Joyce’s ability wasn’t just simple freezing.

Kieran raised his left hand, and snowflakes started to land on his palm.

Although they quickly melted, the snow fell faster and came in larger sizes.

“Is this the power to affect weather?”

“Why? Are you surprised, Flaming Devil?”

Joyce, who stood in a pile of snow, showed a smile. The system blur prevented his smile from being fully shown, but the delight in his eyes and voice was unconcealable.

He was confident that he would win in this. He had done a lot of research about the fiery opponent before him.

Blade of the Daybreaker.

The unique title that Kieran obtained.

Flame Emperor, Fiery Tyrant, Flaming Devil!

Titles given by other players.

Joyce had his own guesses about the former, but the latter?

He had researched about it thoroughly!

He knew he couldn’t afford to engage Kieran after he utilized the powers of ‘Blade of the Daybreaker’.

He had experienced the power of a Unique Title before; it was the kind of power that could truly turn around a desperate situation.

The Witch, Broker, and Blade of the Daybreaker as well.

So…

The battle field had to be on his own turf, a place that could grant him advantages over the fiery traits of Kieran.

What else was more suitable than a blizzard in the freezing kingdom?

“Listen to the roars of the North wind.”

Joyce kept his smile and pointed at the North.

Wuuuu, Fuuuu!

The wind roared right away.

It was as if a breach had been opened in the sky, and the wind was blowing like water from a river gushing downward.

Snow was mixed with the roars of the raging wind. It started to cover everything in sight.

A few seconds later, the street that was frozen was covered with a thick layer of snow, even the tall buildings and broad streets further away—everything vanished in the white.

All that was left was the wind and snow, which had become the sole protagonists of the world.

No! More precisely, Joyce was the sole protagonist!

On top of the snowy platform, Joyce looked down on the snowy land.

The pure white scene was very beautiful, but a black spot stood in the middle, like a drop of ink tainting a piece of white paper.

It was ugly and uncomfortable!

Especially when this black spot was getting bigger and more blinding.

Joyce frowned; he raised his hand and growled.

“Go!”

He swung his hand down. The snow that covered the sky and land trembled right away.

The white snow rumbled, and the raging wind roared.

At the next moment—

The whole world turned upside down as if a magnitude 10 earthquake had struck the land.

The ice world was rebuilt as the sky and land mushed together. It was then squashed fiercely like a piece of paper that was crumpled and thrown into a trash can.

The black spot vanished after the massive movements.

Joyce smiled, unsurprised with the turn. In his point of view, it had been a sure thing to happen.

It should be like this, and this would be the ending.

So, a second later when the black spot re-appeared, Joyce was astonished and shaken beyond words.

However confident he was before, he was now equally astonished at this moment.

Joyce’s wide eyes only showed a single expression: disbelief!

He watched as Kieran walked step by step towards him.

The blizzard halted a meter away from Kieran, unable to reach any further.

He was like an existence that was independent from this icy world.

But he looked more like a black hole, a black hole that devoured everything.

Whether it was the wind or snow, everything was devoured.

As for the rest?

The path was still under his feet.

Kieran walked forward slowly.

The raging wind couldn’t stop him.

The blizzard couldn’t stop him.

Not even the collapse of the sky or the crumbling of the land could stop him!

Nothing could stop Kieran once he had a target in his heart.

Joyce?

He had been so confident before, but as the distance shortened, he was not so sure anymore.

But he still wanted to try.

“GO!”

He waved his hand again.

Other than the first wave, Joyce had, in fact, swung his hand at Kieran multiple times.

The ice pierces, the freezing air—everything—was hurled at Kieran, but nothing was useful. Kieran, who was still walking forward, ignored every icy attack that was thrown at him.

Joyce stared at the leather armor hidden under the mantle with a doubtful, anxious gaze after seeing his ineffective attacks.

But right away, Joyce shook his head because what he was thinking seemed impossible.

He didn’t notice anything strange about the leather armor.

Joyce, so focused on [Devourer Shadow Mail], didn’t notice Kieran’s right hand, or rather, his right glove.

Other than Kieran purposely hiding them away, [Wilco’s Redemption] and [Seattle Right Hand] had become something different in the blizzard.

They were even more remarkable and hidden! They looked like they had fused with the blizzard.

Even though the two pieces of equipment now provided Kieran with endless Hp and Stamina, they hadn’t changed in any obvious way. While relying on the two items that were repeatedly enhanced by the blizzard, Kieran slowly shortened the distance between him and Joyce.

[Dark Movement Technique] also did its job perfectly.

It used the light to turn everything illusive.

It made Kieran look like he was ignoring the blizzard.

It made him look like he was devouring the snow and wind.

Such a ‘scene’ had its fakeness, but when the target couldn’t tell real from false, it was only real to Joyce.

So, in a way, Kieran was indeed ignoring the blizzard and devouring the wind and snow!

Step after step.

When the distance between both of them was shortened to a certain level, the ground covered in snow shook fiercely, much fiercer than the previous trembles. A tornado formed out of ice and snow sprung out of the ground.

Endless snow and frost was sucked in, fueling the tornado to a bigger size.

A massive figure slowly took form inside the tornado.

Bang!

After the thunderous explosion, the massive figure tore the tornado apart. Without the blizzard blocking it, the massive figure showed its true face: a 30-meter tall Frost Giant!

The moment it appeared, deafening growls followed. Then, a straight punch was launched!

Wuu!

The tremendous power in the punch caused ripples in the air; the high buildings in the area were destroyed by the punching wind alone.

An indisputable strength! But!

It was a little slow!

Kieran dodged the punch in a flash and escaped its attacking range. The Frost Giant retrieved its punch and readied for a second one.

Wung!

The air around the giant stirred up again; this second punch was much more powerful than the first, but before it could be launched, it froze in mid-air.

Because…

‘Kieran’ appeared in front of Joyce, and its hand went through Joyce’s neck.

Puk!

Blood splashed. Joyce looked at ‘Kieran’ in front of him with a disbelieving gaze. He then also saw another Kieran further away. A sudden realization came afloat in his mind.

But what use would it be?

Death came as promised.

Bang!

The icy platform Joyce was standing on crumbled.

The blizzard stopped abruptly, just like how it had first appeared.

“Tsk, stupid.”

The High Demon, Bloody Mary, appeared with Kieran’s face; it couldn’t help but curl its lips when it saw the light particles.

In Bloody Mary’s eyes, this icy bastard was very similar to the crazy one from before. They were not very smart guys and could even be considered as idiots from top to bottom.

The other one?

The other one thought he was smart but was actually even more stupid.

A smart person would have known something was wrong when seeing Bloody Mary’s contractor take a stroll in the blizzard, but this idiot before its eyes couldn’t spot anything; instead, he stood there like a live target.

That’s right, a live target!

Blood Mary treated Joyce as an obvious live target.

In order to build his strongest attack, he stood on the icy platform without any bit of defenses? In such an obvious spot?

Other than confidence, it was idiocy.

Judging from the current situation, Joyce was obviously the latter, even though his attack was indeed powerful.

So…

The person who hired these two or the person they served, who could it be?

“Hope you will be a little smarter, or else…”

Bloody Mary muttered to itself, but halfway through the muttering, it shook its head.

Since the subordinates were so stupid, how could their superiors be any smarter than them?

…

Another short meeting was being held.

However, this time, the group wasn’t in that specific location; the meeting was held through messaging.

The moment the meeting was finished, the grumpy one with malicious intent growled furiously.

“Damn it! Damn it!” He cursed.

As he cursed, he smashed everything that he could see. Once the temporary room was smashed into a huge mess and everything was broken, he finally stopped and breathed heavily.

He had known from the start that his collaborators weren’t good people—they had never meant goodness—but he never thought that their way of eating would be so ugly. They betrayed him!

Although the grumpy man had also thought of striking first to secure the advantage, that didn’t mean he could accept betrayal from others.

Huuhaa, Huuhaa.

A few more heavy breaths later, he opened his messaging tab.

He didn’t have to work according to the plan anymore. He needed to change! He wanted to make a move himself!

He wanted to kill all those bastards!

But the moment he opened the messaging tab, he was stunned.

Didar, Joyce—both names were dark. Unlike the greyed-out names for when one went offline, the darkness was blacker, deeper. Only one situation could cause this.

Death!

Didar and Joyce were dead?!

The two men he treated as his left and right hand were dead?!

“Impossible! Impossible! Something must be wrong!”

His face was extremely sour and ugly under the system blur. He started to contact his other men, wanting to know what happened.

It wasn’t that hard, finding out. In fact, there was only a few that could ignore that huge snowy area in the big city.

Although the blizzard blocked probing gazes, players who possessed all sorts of abilities could grasp a thing or two from the blurry image.

If they weren’t afraid of being caught up in the blizzard, they could get a better view.

Still, it was enough.

Looking at the blurry video where a figure had his neck perforated, this important player who was well-known among common players clenched his fist tighter.

Dead!

Didar and Joyce were dead! They died in the hands of the Flaming Devil!

Although he couldn’t see how Didar died, this grumpy player knew that Didar, like Joyce, must have fallen to Kieran as well.

As he watched the black figure leave in the video, the grumpy man almost suffocated.

It wasn’t just because the black figure was at ease throughout the process as if he was merely taking a stroll in his garden, but also because he had raised his right hand and placed it over his neck before going off.

The sign of cutting a throat.

It was obvious enough, to the point that it made the grumpy player nervous.

He was certain that Kieran couldn’t easily locate him, but… what if?

When the thought bloomed, he quickly contacted his collaborators.

Not the old ones, but the new ones.

Soon, he and his collaborators reached a deal. It made him heave a breath of relief.

Then—

Dok, Dok Dok.

Knocks sounded at his door.

The notifications told him that it was one of his men.

This player was also considered one of his best men, so the grumpy player quickly tidied up and headed outside.

Why not allow the man into his room?

What a joke. He didn’t want any of his men to see him in his ugly state.

This decision also determined this well-known player’s fate.

The best man of this well-known player was extremely nervous and anxious, as behind him was a man with a scarlet red windcoat.

The windcoat fluttered along with the wind, revealing the dark pants and boots underneath.

The well-known, grumpy player opened his door.

With one look, he saw the person behind his best man.

He jolted and asked, “Why are you here?”