The Devil’s Cage

As the voice sounded behind him, the man threw the hidden dagger in his sleeve without a second thought, trying to dash out of the coffee shop.

Souu! Pak!

The little dagger hit flesh, striking joy on the man’s face. However, the joy froze and his steps halted the very next moment.

He felt pain radiating from his chest, causing him to look down and see a hand jutting through his ribs. He tried his best to turn around, seeking a glimpse of the person behind him.

He saw Bloody Mary precisely stab its dagger into his heart, yet Bloody Mary felt nothing as it smiled at the man.

Its hand, which was already through the man’s chest, ripped his heart out and crushed it.

Pak!

It then retracted its hand slowly, the body falling to the floor.

“You call yourself undead? I’m afraid you misunderstood the term,” Bloody Mary said, looking down at the body in disdain.

When Bloody Mary touched the man’s heart, it could feel a certain power gathering inside but when it crushed it, the power dispersed rapidly.

The man turned into a dead body, once and for all.

“You are really disappointing,” Bloody Mary muttered.

It thought it had finally found its own kind and it could enslave the man to lighten its burden, but who would’ve thought the man would be a phony.

Once it thought about the fact that it still had to charge into enemy lines, disarm traps, and act as bait, Bloody Mary felt sad. The sadness didn’t stop it from collecting the loot though.

Two checks fell out from the body, Bloody Mary curling its lips into a grin when it saw the numbers on it.

If it was truly some valuable loot, it dared not keep it for itself but with this kind of meaningless paper, it knew it’s boss wouldn’t mind giving the checks to it.

Bloody Mary revered its boss from the bottom of its heart, if it still existed.

It had never seen a person who planned so meticulously, with every conceivable possibility taken into account. Its boss had obviously expected this little encounter, hence Bloody Mary’s arrival.

After all, Bloody Mary did sense a familiar energy in the man’s heart before it crushed it. It was Dark Gold.

“Sigh. You people are really unlucky to be running into my boss,” exclaimed Bloody Mary, vanishing from the spot.

…

Ferris followed the shooter into an old broken car.

The shooter drove fast and shuttled through the streets of the city. They drove from the main street to a branching path before turning into an alleyway.

The alleyway wasn’t the destination, but there was a van parked there.

“Get out.”

The shooter jumped off the car and walked towards the van.

“This is our customer?”

There were two people inside the van, one a scrawny man in the driver’s seat and one a bloated fatty in the back seat.

The scrawny man showed Ferris a smile. His mouth stuck out slightly and he had the chin of an ape, which, in addition to the smile, made him look extremely wretched.

“Come on, the boss is waiting,” the fatty behind him rushed them.

The shooter didn’t say anything, pointing the gun at Ferris and signaling him to get in the van.

Ferris didn’t move under the rainy weather, standing there and sizing up the two people in the van.

“Hurry up! Where are your balls now?”

The shooter seemed to have misunderstood Ferris’ reaction, which he took as hesitation.

The shooter’s face was arrogant, as though he was higher than Ferris, the thought that he had control over someone’s life and death going to his head.

Such arrogance would lower one’s guard and vigilance, blinding them to danger and trouble.

The scrawny driver and the fatty behind him sneered after what the shooter said.

Then…

KABOOM!

The van exploded.

The explosion burst out from under the van, fire engulfing the whole vehicle and sending it flying up to the sky. The duo inside didn’t even make a sound before they were burnt to cinders.

However, the shooter didn’t die in such a close range. It wasn’t his quick reaction that saved him, but the ice shield that Ferris raised in front of him.

Under the rainy weather, with enough water, it was a semi-advantageous field for Ferris. When he created the two ice shields in front of him and the shooter, Ferris also transformed the raindrops into icicles and fired them into the shadow further away.

Ding Ding Ding!

After a series of iron clatters, a figure was forced out from hiding.

The man was in a black raincoat, a hood covered his face completely and a blood covered dagger in his hand.

It seemed like the man was hurt by Ferris’ attack but the man laughed without being any concerned.

“Ferris, the follower of Glutton Emperor? The one who shares a resemblance with the infamous Freezer? Why do I think you and the Freezer are the same person? Or the bastard Glutton Emperor…”

Wung! Gatssssssk!

Before the man even finished, a sub-zero aura appeared out of thin air, transforming the raindrops into ice crystals and freezing the water on the ground. The frost continued to spread with an exponential speed visible to the eyes. The shooter beside Ferris and the sudden attacker further away were frozen on the ground.

The shooter only had his shoes frozen but the attacker had his legs covered in ice, with the frost spreading upwards to his entire body.

“Wait! I didn’t mean anything! I was just…”

“Anyone who insults his lordship must die.”

The sudden attacker never expected such an extreme reaction from Ferris, he wanted to explain himself but Ferris didn’t spare him the chance. The ice covered the attacker’s body in an instant, transforming him into an ice statue.

After that, Ferris turned to the dumbstruck shooter.

“I want to know where your base is,” stated Ferris coldly.

“I know! I know!”

The shooter knew that he must answer in front of the enraged Ferris. He nodded repeatedly and even threw the gun away.

How could a mere firearm harm a powerful Extraordinary individual like Ferris?

The shooter was terrified to his core when the title Glutton Emperor was mentioned.

Everyone who lived in Alkender City knew that title, even civilians.

Civilians felt safe with the title but criminals were horrified by it, without a single exception.

It was then that the shooter seemed to realize that they had struck a deal with the wrong person.

“Hurry,” Ferris rushed him.

He had missed making breakfast and lunch for Kieran, he would not want to miss dinner too.

“O-Okay!”

The shooter got back into the old broken car and started it. This time, the shooter didn’t care about being followed by anyone.

The appearance of the attacker notified him that the secret base that they thought was hidden wasn’t so hidden after all.

As for why the attacker didn’t make a move?

The shooter stepped on the pedal and took a peak at Ferris from the corner of his eyes. His heart skipped a beat.

He realized he and his gang had gotten caught up in some serious trouble.

The car vanished into the rain with the engine growling, the burnt van and an ice statue left behind in the rain.

The fire was extinguished by the rain and the ice statue started to melt.

Kak!

A crack appeared in the ice.

The attacker, who should be frozen, managed to move his eyes before he regained his breath.

When the ice on his eyes melted away, he laughed coldly.

“Hahaha, trying to kill me with ice? I’m an unde-”

Po!

Before he finished, excruciating pain robbed his energy to speak any further. He looked down at the big hole in his chest and saw the person who held his heart with widened eyes. His death was restless.

Bloody Mary didn’t even bat an eye at the attacker, swinging its hand in an arc to wash away the blood with the rain.

It felt like an insult when Bloody Mary heard these men claiming to be undead.

The feeling was like eating a bowl of steamed eggs, while another person—holding a bowl of hot shit—claims to eat the same. The feeling sucked so bad.

What was worse was that there weren’t just a few of these lousy phonies.

Bloody Mary had no idea how these bastards came, but as it pondered on the possibility, the number was definitely not small.

Right now, in front of Bloody Mary, was another one hiding in the shadows.

Bloody Mary stepped back and merged into the shadow in the corner, creating a scene that looked like it had left.

Fuaaaa!

The rain continued.

Five minutes later, a person walked over to the scene after he was sure Bloody Mary had left.

The person walked towards the body with a hole in his chest, confirmed the death, and took out a walkie-talkie.

“Report, experiment 102 is dead. Do we continue the operation?”

“Continue.”

A heavy, sinister voice came from the other end of the walkie-talkie after a small pause.

“Yes, 101 will continue…”

Pak!

Before the person finished, he fell down and never got up. The walkie-talkie fell into Bloody Mary’s hand.

It looked at the communication device in silence, the person on the other end realizing something had happened.

Other than the buzzing, only the loud rain was heard.

“Who is it?” the voice from the walkie-talkie asked after a while.

“Why don’t you have a guess?” Bloody Mary replied with a giggle.

“Har, childish. You have no idea what trouble you got yourself into. I’ll give you two options now. One, take the walkie-talkie to a gas can, and burn yourself with it. Second, I’ll send someone after you and they’ll burn you and the walkie-talkie together.”

The heavy and sinister voice spoke in a plain tone, as though a high ranking person was making the statement.

“Come on then! Whoever fails to show is a lousy wimp!”

Bloody Mary’s evil giggle didn’t go away, not taking the person’s word seriously.

Since it followed Kieran, how many times had it died?

Nothing would happen to Bloody Mary, even if it was thrown into a volcano, let alone burning it with gas.

An undead is truly undying.

“Very well! You’ve made me angry! I’ll make sure you never see tomorrow’s sun.”

The heavy voice spoke heavier, and even through the walkie-talkie, the cold killing intent was obvious.

“Tomorrow’s sun? Selina from the weather forecast said to expect rain tomorrow! Of course I can’t see the sun tomorrow! You idiot! Now I’ll give you a chance to let you correct yourself. Why don’t you say I can’t see tomorrow’s rain?” Bloody Mary teased the voice in a serious way.

“…”

The walkie-talkie was hung up.

“Hey, if you don’t like what I say, I can change. Don’t like rain? I can say clouds or lightning, why did you have to hang up on me?”

Bloody Mary threw the walkie-talkie away as it grunted.

It knew the walkie-talkie had some tracker or some sort of locating device, and as long as it kept it around, the person on the other end would eventually find it.

Bloody Mary bet on it, eager to flush all those lousy bastards who tried to feed it hot shit into the toilet, but it had a mission to complete.

However, this little provocation would not go unchecked.

Its boss had more than one follower and companion.

Although the others weren’t as capable, dealing with these lousy shitty bastards was enough.

Bunch of lousy phonies!

…

“Get everyone out there! I want that bastard found! I will rip his tongue off, strangle him with it, and hang him over the clock tower!”

A young man jumped up from his chair, the rage slightly changing his heavy and sinister voice.

His supposingly handsome face was twisted with rage.

He had never been played like this, this was an insult to him!

If he couldn’t find this bastard who played him, so what if he controlled all of Alkender?

He would be a joke after the meal!

Once he thought about the potential shame, he grew anxious.

“Hurry up! Find that bastard!” the young man shouted at his men in the jeep.

Soon, the group arrived in the alleyway, following the tracker in the walkie-talkie.

The young man saw the ice statue, the body on the ground, and the burnt vehicle. He neglected all of that and headed to the walkie-talkie, looking down at the drenched device and said coldly, “You think you can run away by ditching the walkie-talkie? You have no idea who you are messing with! Find h-… HUH?!”

As he was about to give orders to his men, he realized his surroundings had changed.

The alleyway, the rain, his men, and the bodies were all gone.

What replaced all of that was a well-lit corridor filled with book racks.

A library?

The young man was stunned. He then saw a girl with long hair and a white dress.

Her hair blocked her face. As she walked, her body twisted left and right and her bones cracked loudly.

The lights flickered as she walked, shutting off all of a sudden and when they got back up, the long haired girl was in front of the young man.

Her face beneath her long hair was exposed: a hideous, ferocious image, as though her face was destroyed.

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

The young man’s heart skipped a beat. He had never seen such an ugly girl but he did not answer because he felt an immense threat from her.

Step by step, the young man walked back. The girl followed him and would ask him the same question with every step taken.

But soon the young man realized that when he got up the stairs, the hideous girl stopped.

“I see! The key is to get upstairs?”

The young man felt delighted with his realization, running towards the upper floor.

When he stepped onto the third floor, a soft sobbing entered his ears.

“Someone is here to bully. Sob sob sob again. sobs is scared!”